Gaming for Glory
by Yoshtar
Summary: I am... The Gamer: A beta-Tester for the most advanced reality-based game system out there, developed by Metasoft Industries. Summed up, it's an ARG on steroids... but it's also not on Earth, but rather a VERY familiar world you and I know as Remnant... it's a real place apparently, and it's where I am writing this from... RWBY says "hi"...
1. Arrival

__**Okay, so a few things to get out of the way as a foreword**

 **1: Chapters 1-5 are SUPER rough... as in, I had a bad habit of not capitalizing my sentences or proof-reading waaaaaay back in September of 2015  
** **2: Chapters 1-5 also represent the initial literary 'rhino charge' to try and break through a long-standing writer's block I'd been suffering. Expect a lot of roughness  
** **3: I happened to notice that I had some old 'raw' proof-read chapters that I'm now going to attempt to purty up for you guys to try and mitigate issues #1 and 2... and maybe get rid of the old PR.N which aren't links any more  
4: It is my sincere wish that you, like the 400-odd subscribers as of writing this (13-Jul-16) enjoy this fanfic as much as I enjoyed writing it, brainstorming about it, researching it, and talking to anyone who'd listen about it.**

* * *

Waking up to loud noises and bright lights is never a happy occurrence. Waking up in an unfamiliar location doesn't fall far behind either.

So when I awoke to both I was rather grumpy.

The noise was a simple, classical piano piece, and in hindsight would have been rather pleasant and soothing, and maybe mystical if I was feeling generous, if it hadn't been for the other factors.

I was in a large circular room with a door behind me and an empty desk in front of me.

Most of the rest of the room was darkened, myself and the furniture residing in an island of light.

To be completely fair and honest, it looked like someone had tried to set up an office in the "dive to the heart" sequences from Kingdom Hearts.

With nothing else to do, I got up and approached the desk.

A flat, machine-tone female voice issued from a speaker on the desk:

 _ ***BZZZT***_

 _"Welcome, Gamer. You have chosen or have been chosen to undergo one of our grandest experiments to date. Most people call it "The Gamer", after the comic which the concept originated from, and we at Metasoft studios aren't ones to mess with a good thing. This may be confusing if you are unfamiliar with said comic, but long story short: You are now "The Gamer", and shall experience the rest of your life as if you were playing a game, an RPG to be exact, though you'll still see in the first person."_

I just blinked in surprise. I was still groggy, hadn't had my coffee, and I was pretty disoriented, so intelligent replies were in short supply. The voice continued regardless of my ability to absorb information or respond to it.

 _"Unfortunately, we must also offer our sincerest regrets and condolences, but due to extensive negative feedback, your current home server is currently unavailable for this product. We are currently working on resolving this issue and in the meantime we have prepared an available server for you. Metasoft would also like to remind you that, despite your new game-like nature, this is a real world and that these are not some mindless pre-programmed NPC's._ _Decisions you make will matter, particularly for you and in this world. Death is permanent, and there are no do-overs._ _"_

With that, the door behind me opened, allowing light in, yet illuminating nothing.

 _"When you are ready, please take the letters we have prepared for you and step through the door into your new life. Metasoft wishes you a good day and thanks you for participating in the closed beta. Good luck, and have fun."_

 _ ***BZZZZT***_

The light illuminating the desk narrowed on a thickset manila envelope that felt like it had a decent amount of paper in it and a regular-shaped blue envelope taped to the front.

Unsure, I grabbed the letters. The light shining on the desk faded to black, forcing me to step back as I felt the floor become intangible under my left foot.

Now it was just my thoughts, the door and I.

' _I am... The Gamer? I'm going to another world? Like... that's cool, awesome even, but I had friends and family and all that. I don't even get to say goodbye? Shit man, I'm really gonna miss them. This game had better rock harder than a crack addiction... and whatever joker thought this was a good idea will pay the second I get my hands on him.'_

Taking a deep breath.

I turned.

Faced the door.

Spent a moment to brace myself.

Stepped up to the threshold.

Tensed.

Closed my eyes and stepped through the door... into thin air.

I swore as my face swung out into nothingness for all of a second before colliding with something soft and solid.

* * *

 _ **Story Quest Gained: A Shining Beacon.**_

 _ **-Grab the letters [X]**_

 _ **-Step through the door [X]**_

 _ **-Deliver the Letter [ ]**_

 **You are now:**

 **Rested! : HP, MP and SP restored!**

' _I'm what?'_

Well, I'm lying on my face for one. Nice soft carpet though.

Obviously, the first thing I do is try to stand up, but that idea is nixed when a foot stomps onto my back and drives the wind from my lungs. I try to roll over but the foot is still planted on my back and staying there.

' _Okay, not good.'_

I try desperately to catch my breath, but the foot pressing me into the carpet isn't helping.

Thankfully someone notices my gasping and the foot releases its pressure and I'm rolled onto my back.

It took me some time to actually see my assailants since my face is, understandably scrunched up in pain, but once I've caught my breath I unscrunch it and finally get to see where I am.

I see four young girls looking ready to tear me to shreds wearing what I presume to be their nightclothes.

' _Looks like they were in the middle of getting ready for bed.'_

Now, not to say that I'm a wimp, but I've only ever fought semi-seriously once in my life, and I could just tell from looking that I would have no chance against this... not to mention that I was outnumbered four to one with no hand to hand combat experience.

I flinched as a loud _***Ding***_ echoed through the room, followed by a small text box in the centre of my vision

 _ **A new skill has been created: Danger Sense (Passive)**_

 _ **This unique Terran skill from the core world automatically alerts the user to potential danger, allowing them to avoid traps, ambushes and help them pick fights they can win**_.

I Immediately felt what the notification was talking about, as I could feel the raw danger being exuded by these four ladies.

I slowly raised my hands up in what I hoped was an omniversal gesture of surrender, not just international or universal.

"Who the hell are you and how did you get in here?" One of the four, the one with blonde hair, demanded.

Time slowed down to a crawl

A new textbox appeared

 _ **"Please enter your name"**_

What?

I try to say my name but my tongue sticks itself to the 'floor' of my mouth and the box turns red and buzzes angrily at me.

 _ **"Invalid Entry. Name must be different from old one."**_

Right... I needed a new name.

My reflex was to just to enter my regular gamertag, since that always worked, but actually being called that would wear thin... and it was a stupid name.

I had one backup, as a reserve name that kind of fit that I liked... I felt silly, but I tried it anyway.

The box lit up green, the text changing to _**"Accepted"**_ with a big tick mark.

"My name is Cobalt Jinn" I said "And I have as much clue as to why I am here as you do. I was kidnapped and... well, I guess I was teleported here by my captors in a sort of 'tag and release' system. Handed me a big manila folder and a letter before I left."

"You mean that one over there? The one with your name on it?" The one with red hair asked

"Wait, what?"

I looked and sure enough, it was there, not three feet from me.

' _I don't remember my name being on there and- wait, this says Cobalt Jinn, not my actual name so why did? And how did they know about 'Cobalt'?'_

I felt a sudden swell of panic about all this.

' _What was going on- Wait, they said I was the gamer or something, didn't they? Maybe that had something to do with this.'_

Actually looking, I saw that the name was different on both envelopes. The manila one had it in bold stencil, whilst the blue one had 'my' name handwritten with black marker under the words _"Read me"._

Well, why the f**k not?

"...and so down went Alice after the rabbit, never once considering how she was to get out again." I (mis)quoted to myself as I tore open the letter

"What?" The black haired one asked

"The letter says "Read me" and my name, and it came from my kidnappers." I explained as I tore open the envelope

"It was a relevant reference." I defended

"What does it say?" The red-haired one asked

"Hold on one second... it asks me to find someone called Ozpin and deliver the big envelope here and the other letter in this little one to him, and that he'd explain most of what's going on." I summarized, handing her the letter.

"You mean professor Ozpin, the Headmaster?" The white-haired one asked

"um... maybe. It just says Ozpin." I said

"and you expect us to just believe you?!" The white-haired one basically shouted at me.

"yes- uh...ok, you've got a point there... um... well... you see... I've got nothing." I said "maybe Ozpin's letter has something in it, or he'll be able to confirm or deny the story?"

They looked unsure... I had to sweeten the pot

"If it makes you feel better, I'll let you handcuff me or something when you go to take me to see him." I added.

There was a moments pause as they considered this

"You're awfully keen to be tied up." the black-haired one said

"It's simple really, I am awfully keen to get some answers. I'm scared, confused and somewhat disoriented. I'm not gonna beat around the bush here. I am surrendering. Tie me up, and send me to the boss-man, so we can all just get on with it." I explained "...oh, and I would like to apologize for interrupting your evening."

* * *

 **Greetings once more.**

 **for the record: I have not died, nor have I quit fanfiction. I am merely indisposed as ideas and obsessions swirl past in a hailstorm of games and stories, when life isn't getting in the way... and I haven't been able to stick to any one story long enough to write a whole chapter, when I have tried to write at all, and even then I haven't been able to write for long without tabbing out to youtube.**

 **So... I haven't been writing, and when I have been, it's been this latest project that I hope to not let die... like the other seventy, poorly thought-out exercises that you never saw.**

 **And I realize that this first chapter is short, and painfully so, especially after such a long silence... I apologize, and thoroughly deserve all of your scorn for it.**

 **So... Sorry, I guess. My only excuse is that I've been out of the game for so long and I'm trying to get a foothold on what I hope to be a much longer story.**

 **On a semi-related note: Can you see grammatical, spelling and past/present tense mistakes? Do you have the free time and patience to go over someone else's rough drafts? If so, you might be able to Beta-Read these. Apply through a PM.**

 **As for the rest of you, reviews, feedback and even suggestions are more than welcome. I read each and every one of those things y'know, and they all mean a lot to me.**

 **If you have ideas you'd like to see, send 'em over, I'll let you know if they're what I'm looking for.**

 **I would ask Reviewers to be kind, as I said, I've been out of the game for a long time, and it's like having the training wheels on again and I've been re-learning how to just get chapters out.**


	2. Foot in the Door

"So what do we have here?" Ozpin asked

We were in his office after a quick message had been sent. No one was happy that I'd arrived right on bedtime, least of all myself for having arrived at all.

I decided that, if this was who I thought it was, I should come... mostly clean right now.

"Well, I for one, have no clue what's going on or how I got here. I do have a letter addressed to you from the people who kidnapped me... One hell of a roundabout courier service if you ask me." I joked, handing Ozpin the letter

 _ **-Objective Complete-**_

 _ **Deliver the Letter [X]**_

 _ **-New Objective-**_

 _ **Enroll at Beacon [ ]**_

 _'W-w-w... what?!'_

Ozpin quickly began reading the letter, his face losing its impassive quality, adopting a grim expression accompanied with quick glances at me. He opened the manila envelope, quickly checking the contents before putting it back.

"Not to pry or anything, but what does that letter say?" I asked "I didn't read it beforehand or anything."

"Well, young man, the letter explains who and what you are, and states that on the behalf of Metasoft and the Vale City Council, you have been sponsored with a scholarship to Beacon Academy." Ozpin summarized.

"Sponsored?!" Everyone but Ozpin shouted

"It claims you re something called the gamer," Ozpin said "even this summary of your new abilities is... well, nothing short of incredible, combining many different abilities into a single semblance... storage, learning, self-improvement... it beggars belief!"

"You aren't the only one." I murmured.

"Though I can see why they sent you here, to me... With your abilities so heavily tied to combat, if you fell into the wrong hands, the consequences would be dire" Ozpin concluded

"Dire?" Black asked

"The Gamer... I wouldn't get anywhere with the ability without fighting, killing opponents... if I don't, I'm stuck with entry-level abilities at best... but there's literally no roof on what I can eventually accomplish given time and enough EXP if I do fight, if I kill..."

"OH."

"Now then, your decision?" Ozpin asked

"What? Right now?" I asked

"Traditionally you would have a week to decide, unfortunately the hour is late, and I need to get started immediately implementing this information if your answer is indeed yes?" Ozpin asked and explained.

I weighed my options for a few seconds before saying "W-well then... yes. I'll do it."

"You don't sound particularly sure." Ozpin remarked

"No offence, but this was kind of just... thrust on me... though it's either live an unfulfilled life, kill people or kill Grimm, and that's not really much of a choice... I suppose it's something of a duty now to see how deep the rabbit hole goes as well I s'pose." I explained

"Very well... before you go, I'll need some sort of verification of these claims... I know you just said yes, but some of these claims are just so far-fetched I'd have dismissed them outright if they didn't have the official seal of the VCC." Ozpin said

"Uh- um... that might be a bit difficult, since it mostly only affects... wait a minute!" I said

"What?" Ozpin asked

"The party system!" I exclaimed

"You can't be serious" White interrupted

"What?"

"A semblance that throws parties?!" She screeched

"What? No-no-no-no-no-no. It is more akin to hunting parties out for loot, adventure and the like." I explained "A big part of gaming is multiplayer, and this is like bringing a friend along for some quick-'n-easy drop-in; drop-out co-op."

"In English, please?" Yellow asked

"So an ability that was basically this appeared in a comic I read once, and the party system there basically allowed him to share his special ability with his friends and allies, temporarily... since this gamer thing is basically the same down to the name..."

' _Hang on, didn't names appear in the gamer? Like, over people's heads?'_

I look and besides noting a marked similarity to some fictional characters which, of course, I just dismissed as pure coincidence, nothing turned up

 _ **Studying your surroundings has created a new skill: Observe.**_

 _ **Observe allows one to gain information about objects in one's environment at a glance**_ _ **by observing minute details**_ _ **just like Sherlock Holmes.**_

What?

Wait, there were the names! There! It must be tied to Observe and- holy hell! Their names...

"You want to use a comic as a reference for using your semblance?!" White demanded

"When you put it like that, it sounds stupid as all get-out, but yes, that is the intention... also, as it turns out, I just happened to notice your name floating above your head, Weiss Schnee, so we're already getting results."

"You'll have to try a little harder, I'm rather well known." Weiss rebuffed

"Okay then... watch me work some magic with a few vocal commands then... how did Jeehan do it? Oh right. **Party Create: Team Cobalt** "

 _ ***DING***_

 _ **Are you sure? Y/N**_

" **yes** "

 _ **'Team Cobalt' has been created**_

" **Party Invite: Professor Ozpin, Weiss Schnee, Ruby Rose, Yang Xiao Long, Blake Belladonna** "

Five Pop-ups appeared and Jaws officially hit the floor.

"Careful there, I don't want to write Mistral letters of apology to get your jaws back." I joked

Yang snapped out of her shock to laugh

"How?" Blake asked

"Accept the invite," I said "just press the yes button."

Fingers tentatively pressed buttons

 _ **New Skill Created: Leadership**_

 _ **Leadership is the party skill, and allows one to form temporary bands of likeminded individuals, or parties. A better leadership skill will confer special bonuses and more access to 'gamer' systems.**_

"Tell me, does my name appear above my head?" I asked

"Cobalt Jinn, level 1 newbie, no title." Ruby read aloud

"Good, good. It's working. Long story short, the Party system lets me share several key parts of this ability with others... not sure how it interacts with other people's semblances, but it should only slightly modify them for the duration."

"Slightly modify?" Blake asked, concern lacing her voice

"So it fits the system... you might notice yourself tiring faster or slower for a quick example, depending on your stats." I explained

"What stats?" She asked

"There's a command for that, and it goes along the lines of ' **Status'.** " I said, shit-eating grin a mile wide.

My status screen dutifully appeared, and I quickly skimmed the contents.

 _ **Cobalt Jinn**_

 _ **Race: Human  
**_ _ **Class: Newbie  
**_ _ **Sub Class: None  
**_ _ **Title: None**_ _ **  
**_

 _ **LVL 1  
**_ _ **XP: 453/1000 (45.30%)**_

 _ **HP: 100/105  
**_ _ **MP: {260}  
**_ _ **SP: 100/100**_

 _ **Points: 0**_

 _ **STR: 9  
**_ _ **DEX: 15  
**_ _ **VIT: 11  
**_ _ **INT: 26  
**_ _ **WIS: 8  
**_ _ **LUK: 9**_

When I got to the stat line I winced. The painful truth laid out before me was uncomfortable. I would seriously need to work on improving that.

That came later, I was curious as to what my skills looked like? It was pretty much obligatory to check those out at this point, after all.

Skills:

 _ **Gamer Body**_ _(LVL Max): (Passive)_ the Gamer's body acts and reacts like that of a videogame character.  
 _ **Gamer Mind**_ _(LVL Max): (Passive)_ A game character keeps going for as long as the player wants. Grants a cool and passive head with an immunity to fear and control effects.  
 _ **Observe**_ _(LVL 1): (Active/Passive)_ the ability to gain information at a glance  
 _ **Danger sense**_ _(LVL 1): (Passive)_ A Core-World ability granting one the ability to sense incoming danger and the vague direction of their source.  
 _ **Leadership**_ _(LVL 1): (Passive)_ Mastery of the Party system and the ability to lead others to victory using it.

 _'Well... just those five skills, I suppose I'd have to display some attempt at something to gain more.'_

"Well, that's... interesting, unfortunately, it's getting late and everyone has a busy day ahead of them tomorrow. Follow me, and I'll lead you to temporary accommodations."

"Uh, sure?"

After some fiddling with the system trying to figure out how to end a party.

 _ ***DING*  
**_ _ **Party: 'Team Cobalt' has been disbanded.**_

I followed Ozpin to my room.

When we got there, Ozpin removed a sheath of paper from the manila envelope and handed me the envelope, which was still half full.

"Take this. Inside should be a scroll and a full set of identification." Ozpin explained

"Thanks for this. No, really" I said

"Be prepared. Tomorrow will be a far cry from anything you've ever experienced before." Ozpin warned

I sighed before replying "Don't I know it."

"You'll have to tell me about Earth sometime. I wondered if we were alone?" Ozpin said before turning and leaving

For the most part I was frozen in shock until my 'semblance' chimed.

 _ **=Quest Complete=**_

 _ **Congratulations!**_

 _ **+500 XP, +500cr**_

I just groaned, walked to one of the beds, placed the envelope carrying all my possessions on a bedside table and promptly collapsed into the bed and fell asleep.


	3. Making Acquaintances

_'Blurrggh... man, I feel like crap today... let's just hope coffee fixes what ails me...'_

 _'Wait a second, that's not my roof! This isn't my room! Where the f- oh, right. Gamer.'_

 _ **You are rested, MP and SP restored**_

I groaned and pulled myself out of bed.

"Right... I'm stuck in an anime that's possibly a videogame in disguise, with the Gamer ability... well, at least I'm working with my strong suit." I summarized to myself.

I put my head in my hands and took several deep breaths. Honestly, I felt like screaming.

Eventually I decided I needed to get my ass into gear and went scavenging for toiletries and spare clothing. If I was to study here, I wanted to make a somewhat decent first impression.

Luckily enough, the room seemed to have been stocked with everything I needed and I quickly went through a semblance of my morning routine, until I happened to catch a glance at my face in the mirror to discover that my beard was gone.

Man, I looked really young... like, more so than shaving normally does... like, my jaw was slightly more rounded and my face wasn't as 'filled out'. Everything was still the same though beyond that, same short-cropped, dark, brown hair and brown eyes that I'd once had called cute, same rectangular face just a slightly-younger, more beardless version of myself.

 _ **Careful manual observation has caused the level of Observation to increase by one**_

"That is going to get old and annoying really fast."

I re-emerged from the bathroom fully dressed with my old clothes in hand and nearly dropped it when I got yet another system message.

 _ **A compatible device has been detected, do you want to synchronize with it?**_

 _'What-'_

 _ **Synchronizing presents some unique benefits, and allows real-time, two-way feedback between the device and the system, creating an easily accessible physical interface with a simple PDA or smartphone.**_

 _'Oh... That's not so bad. I suppose I should.'_

 _ **Caution: This process will take several minutes.**_

' _What doesn't?'_

 _ **One moment, please wait...**_

I must have blanked out because the next thing I knew was that it was indeed, several minutes later if my watch was to be believed.

 _'Figures. The system ties up all its resources synchronizing and I'm left literally doing nothing. What, did Apple design this P.O.S?'_

That thought was interrupted when I heard a familiar jingle issue out of my old pants and I wasted no time in investigating.

A quick search turned up a familiar, small, black, rectangular device: a recent model Nokia Smartphone: Ol' faithful. I must've accidentally slept with it in my pocket... I'm glad these things are literally bulletproof. An IPhone wouldn't last most of the abuse I put it though... I just hope it doesn't actually take a bullet.

On the screen is a single message "Installation complete!"

I'm not given any chances to examine this revelation by the sound of knocking at my door. I quickly re-pocket my old phone and move to answer.

I opened the door to find Ruby, of all people.

"Ruby?!"

"Good morning!" Ruby exclaimed

"Not that I don't appreciate the gesture and all, but why are you here? I mean, I did cost you half a nights sleep and was... well, kind of rude... sorry for that by the way" I said

"I figured that you didn't know anyone here and Beacon's kind of a maze... so, you wanna go grab breakfast?" Ruby explained

 _ **-New Quest!-**_

 _ **The Most Important Meal  
**_ _ **Enjoy Breakfast with RWBY & JNPR 15:00 [ ]  
**_ _ **Bonus: Impress the others [ ]  
**_ _ **Bonus: Establish contacts [ ]  
**_ _ **Reward: 150 XP**_

"Well... uh... thanks... I guess... um- okay, restart. Yes, thanks, I would love someone to show me where they serve breakfast around here," I said "Lead the way, oh fearless leader!"

"Sure thing!" Ruby said with a smile

* * *

"So let me get this straight. You were kidnapped, made into this gamer thing, which is kind of awesome by the way, and then dumped in RWBY's dorm room?" Jaune asked.

"That about sums it up." I said before taking another bite of a Bacon and Egg sandwich I'd put together. The food here was just amazing. I'd been to a good many barbeques and sausage sizzles, but this just blew everything up until this moment out of the park.

 _ **Tasting has gone up by one level**_

 _'Nothing's sacred, is it?_ _ ***SOBS***_ _'_

I'd been formally introduced to team JNPR by Ruby, who I'd impressed with the whole Gamer thing briefly before we all just sat down and had breakfast as team RWBY and I relayed the whole crazy mess. It became quickly apparent that I could see their levels floating under their names, and, barring Jaune's level 9, everyone was in their mid-to-late 20's with Pyrrha and Ruby pushing 30 each.

To say -as a level 1- that this was intimidating would be like calling the titanic waterlogged.

"My question is: What do you plan to do?" Pyrrha asked

"Isn't that the million dollar question?" I muttered

"What?"

"Nothing, just an old gripe. To start, I said last night that I wanted to stay at beacon and- well, not so much learn how to use my semblance, since that's straightforward, but I guess I'm here to Git Gud"

"Get good?" Pyrrha asked

"Close enough. I need weapons and armour, possibly magic, and the know how to use them." I explained "In short, I need to get good, at the game, at life, doesn't matter."

 _ **Quest Created  
**_ _ **Combat Versatility  
**_ _ **Learn 20 new skills [ ]  
**_ _ **Reward: 500XP, ?**_

"I see….." Pyrrha asked

"Are you really that unprepared for all this?" Weiss asked, incredulous

"I was perfectly set up for a life of mediocrity before this point, yes," I admitted "but I'll be damned if I let that get the better of me."

"Are you sure?" Pyrrha asked

"Yeah. Truth be told, it's kind of a dream come true." I assured her "I mean, who doesn't dream of coming to Beacon at one point or another?... er, thanks for the concern though."

My scroll chose that moment to ring.

"Oh, one second"

A check revealed a text from Ozpin.

"Oh, crap, looks like the Wizard of Oz needs me" I said

Blake's eyes went wide before she burst out laughing. The rest of them had the reference go completely over their head

"What?" Weiss asked

"I'll let Blake explain it, Ozpin says it's important!" I said, before getting up and leaving.

 _ **-Quest Complete-**_

 _ **+250xp**_

 _'Oh fuck off'_

* * *

The elevator doors opened revealing Ozpin in his office.

"You said you needed me?" I asked

"Yes. I've just finished enrolling you. I needed to discuss the terms of said enrolment." Ozpin said

"Okay, what are they?" I asked

"Firstly, your scholarship is for an apprenticeship, so you'll eventually be paired with a Hunter who will be responsible for training you into a full-blooded Hunter. This will mean missions beyond the scope of a normal first-year student unfortunately. Secondly, I've scheduled a series of meetings with some people to help you design, create and learn to wield a weapon of your own making." Ozpin stated

"Fair enough... I suppose I start immediately or something?" I asked

"If that is what you wish"

"Uh- cool. Yeah, I'll get right on that then. I suppose I've got a lot of catching up to do, sooner's better than later." I said

"They'll be waiting for you by Forge 18. There is a map on the Scroll that was in your envelope. Have a nice day." Ozpin said, dismissing me

"Sure thing, thanks again"

 _ **-Quest Obtained-  
**_ _ **Meet the Instructors at Forge 18 [ ]  
**_ _ **Decide on a Weapon design [ ]  
**_ _ **Arrange for basic training [ ]**_

"Well, at least it's trying to be helpful." I sighed as the elevator doors closed


	4. Hatching Plans

"Let's see... Forge 18... forge- ah, there... 18 is... there, and to get there I need to... alright..." I muttered to myself.

 _ **Map Skill Unlocked  
**_ _ **Map: Generates a Mini-Map in the Gamer's HUD on demand. Can be used to set navigational waypoints.**_

 _ **Waypoint Established:**_ _ **Forge 18: 658m**_ _ **  
**_

 _'Oh, well that's handy!'_

When I finally arrived at the forge district, I found the forges abuzz with activity, mostly technicians working on ammo, though there were plenty of students straightening dents and replacing broken parts in weapons and armour.

Finally I got to Forge 18 and found two familiar faces waiting for me.

"Cobalt!"

"Ruby? Pyrrha?"

"Yes. Ozpin contacted us and said we had the first period off to help you out." Pyrrha explained.

"Ah. Thanks." I oh-so-intelligently replied

"So, what kind of weapon are you looking to use?" Ruby asked "Maybe a flamethrower sword? Or a shotgun axe?"

"Uh- wha- well, those both sound effing badass, but I was looking for something simple to start with. I was thinking of a spear or hafted blade of some kind?" I asked.

"Why would that be?" Pyrrha asked

"I've heard that so long as the sharp bit is between you and the bad guy, you're doing well with a spear. Not great, mind you, just good, but this makes them easy to learn. Simple, practical, once hailed as the greatest infantry weapon out there before guns, and you can bet that I'm going to use the space provided by the haft to put an effing sweet gun on there!"

"Anything specific?" Ruby asked

"Well, there was once a time where I contemplated a chainsaw/flamethrower/battle staff combo, but that's a bit on the cool, but impractical side... or even a glaive with a double-barreled micro-rocket machinegun, or a combat shotgun or something." I admitted.

"That's... a bit much" Pyrrha said

"How about a bifurcating Naginata with an off-hand double-barreled Combat Shotgun?" I asked "All the bits are very simple to make and hopefully easy to learn to use."

I was surprised when Ruby appeared next to me, hand across my shoulders and one arm pointing out into the middle distance

"Cobalt, I can see that this is the beginning of a ~beautiful~ friendship." she said

A massive grin split my face.

"You should see some of the ideas I have for specialty ammo then." I smirked as I remarked.

"If it's like your spear, I'm all ears!"

* * *

With Ruby gibbering in excitement and after arranging a meeting with Pyrrha for training, I made for the library.

 _ **Wisdom has increased by 1**_

 _'Oh Jesus fu- oh, hey, forgot about that... guess I'm hitting the gym after this'_

* * *

I'd read this a few times, and Books were pretty big on my list. Even a "For Dummies" book on first aid would prove immensely useful right now.

I approached the front desk and caught the librarian's attention.

"Hi, I'm new and all... I was wondering if you could point me in the direction of any sort of textbooks you have on spear or sword forms and aura? I'm looking for an edge in combat classes." I asked

"Third shelf on the left for combat techniques, fourth for aura." she said without even looking up from her book.

"Thanks a bunch" I said before heading in that direction

"Oh, and before you ask, Ozpin said to set aside some books on some essential basics for you," she called out from the desk "not sure why, but I'm not one to question an order from the top."

That stopped me in my tracks

"Where would those be?" I asked

"Same place, just on a big cart." she replied

"Thanks again."

* * *

 _'Hmm... Which should I use first?'_

There was a myriad of books in front of me, most of them basic combat training manuals, some advanced stuff, basics on aura...

 _'Well, first things first, my Aura needs unleashing if I want to get anywhere. T'was basically the first thing Pyrrha did to Jaune after all.'_

I picked up one of the large pile, "Aura, The Soul and you; the basics principles of aura."

 _ **Skill book detected: Aura  
**_ _ **Would you like to learn this skill? Y/N**_

"Yes"

The book snapped open in my hands and the text glowed a brilliant gold before literally lifting off the pages to swirl around my head and the book in a giant, three-dimensional figure eight.

Then the book glowed gold and flowed through the air and into my eyes which I could not shut... if I had to liken it to anything, I'd say "Absorbing a dragon's soul in Skyrim"

When the process was complete I heard a strange whispering in my brain and felt an odd... tingle in my chest, as if there was a strange potential for something there.

Then, on auto-pilot, I spoke.

 _"For it is in passing that we achieve immortality, through this we become a paragon of virtue and glory to rise above all. Infinite in distance and unbound by death, I release my soul so that I may become free."_

 _ **You have successfully cast off the shackles of your soul and freed its light unto the world. Congratulations, you have unlocked your Aura.**_

 _ **New Skill Unlocked: Aura  
**_ _ **Dust and advanced technologies are not the only resources available to the people of Remnant. Through meditation and study, they have weaponized the very light of their souls.  
**_ _ **Damage is deducted from AP before HP.  
**_ _ **Aura Points (AP) can be spent to increase the power of a skill, action or attack.  
**_ _ **AP can be spent to restore missing HP or SP.  
**_ _ **Aura can be used to manipulate dust and enhance inanimate objects.**_

At once I felt a sweeping energy, a brilliant radiance fill me from within as a deep-set weariness settled into my limbs.

I went stiff as I sensed a source of danger

When I finally collected myself and focused my vision, I saw Jaune of all people staring at me.

"Did you just unlock your aura?" He asked

I just nodded, still a bit beyond words at the moment.

"What are you?" Jaune asked

Whilst I wasn't the best at expressions, the one I sent him hopefully asked 'what?'

"I've seen auras being unlocked before, but nothing like that." he explained

"How... so?" I asked

"Your aura sucked light in, and was... dark before the blue beat it out... I'm not sure how to describe it better than that." he explained

"I-… that's complicated... I'm not a Grimm... or a demon... just human as far as I can tell... we both know I have a unique soul, what with gamer." I explained

"Your soul suggests otherwise?" Jaune said

I exuded my aura, an ability I didn't know less than thirty seconds ago, and saw that it was Cobalt blue, like my name.

"My soul's currently glowing blue instead of sucking in light... maybe the self-actualization helped?" I suggested "Crisis averted before we even knew what was going on."

"Fine... what were you doing with all these books anyway?" He asked

"Just some express learning courtesy of Ozpin and my semblance. Most of this looks like combat stuff?" I replied

"You mean that thing with the lights was-"

"That was a skill book I used... didn't think the experience would be so... intense." I explained, interrupting Blake

"Does... does that work with any book?" Jaune asked

"No, 'skill' is the operative word here. It needs to describe a particular skill, preferably in detail, like a pilot's manual or a cookbook."

"I see."

"Well... I have aura now... you think I should do martial arts or weapon techniques next?" I asked "I'm thinking to just load myself up with, like, dozens of skills, since my repertoire is...limited right now."

"Sounds like a good plan." He replied

"Well, I'm going to get through all these eventually... should just pick one out at random." I decided reaching in and pulling out "Dust for Dummies and other Inadequate Individuals!"

 _ **Skill Book: Dust Mastery  
**_ _ **Would you like to learn this skill? Y/N**_

"Yes"

The pamphlet fragmented, turned to golden light and implanted its knowledge in my brain via my optic nerve.

Afterwards it was like having a flash grenade go off in a FPS game. There was a fading afterimage and my eyes kinda hurt, but not overly so.

"Okay, two down, maybe a dozen more to go before I get the boot!" I said, picking up one detailing basic weapon forms.

"Have you decided what weapon you're going to use yet?" Jaune asked

"Basically yes. Couldn't make up my mind so I said "all of the above": a Chokuto that combines with a spear to make a naginata with a heavy combat shotgun" I answered "No mecha-shifting, combination. Simple and easy to make that way."

 _ **Skill Book: Combat Mastery (Basic)  
**_ _ **Learnable Skills: Polearm Mastery, Spear Mastery, Sword Mastery, Shotgun Mastery  
**_ _ **Would you like to learn this skill? Y/N**_

"Holy shit, multiple in one! Hell to the yes!" I exclaimed

 _ **Your Mastery with your weapons has yielded the following skills:**_ _ **Cleave (LVL 1), Impale (LVL 1), Parry (LVL 1), Volley (LVL 1)**_

"New discovery: improving my masteries automatically adds attack skills to the roster." I mused out loud

"Really?" Jaune asked

"I can now cleave, impale, parry and volley-fire a shotgun because I now have a number of level 1 weapon masteries." I explained

"If only it was that easy for me."

"Eh, you'll get there. It's only easy because I'm cheating... cheats I can share around for rapid advancement." I said, quickly hatching a plot

"Wait, seriously?" Jaune asked

"You play many games?" I asked in return

"well, yeah-"

"How long does it take for you to hit level 20 in an RPG?" I asked

"not long." Jaune replied

"Now what if I told you the average level for first-years is 20, Mr. level 9?" I asked

Jaune's face went pale

"I- I don't know what you're talking about." Jaune lied

"Since my new rank in observe, I've been able to see a rough approximation of people's fighting strength, or level, floating above their heads right under their name." I explained

Jaune's eyes went wide

"I'm not going to rat you out, that'd be a dick move and I'm better than that, or at least I fancy myself better than that. You're the only first year I've seen with a level below 20, and I have a vested interest in seeing my friends not die, and I'd like to consider you a friend.

As you said, this would take a few hours at best if they allow live-fire versus Grimm, maybe a week tops with just sparring. You can also stow the machismo crap about toughing it out on your own, since this place is way above both our levels. Best chance either of us have is together... well, you have your team, which is filled with powerful and competent individuals, but I'm offering the fast-track to getting on their level, with lasting results." I offered

Jaune's shock was writ clear across his face

"Man, I sound like a steroid infomercial!" I joked

No response, Jaune was beyond jokes right now

"So how about it, you wanna team up and get strong enough to beat beacon?" I asked "I have lessons with Pyrrha, and if anyone'd know her way around a sword 'n' board, it'd be her."

"How do you know these things?" Jaune asked

"Trade secret, and a semblance that features information gathering." I replied.

It wasn't a lie, more a half-truth: Gamer hadn't told me any such thing, but he didn't need to know that

"You swear you're not going to tell anyone?"

"There are worse secrets than that, that I'm privy to, and I'm not saying who or what." I replied "So, no. I'm not gonna tattle. I genuinely wanna extend an- no, wrong expression, we're not at each other's throats... well, I suppose I'm just being a good Samaritan." I said, extending my hand.

"Deal" Jaune said, shaking my hand to seal the deal

"Pyrrha is meeting me tomorrow after classes. We'll see about turning you into a Paladin yet!" I said

"What?"

"Big defender, tank with a lot of sustain thanks to divine healing powers, heavy armour, big shield, generally referred to as white knights." I explained

"Oh, right."

"You just seemed the sort," I said "Anyhow, I have skill books to absorb."

 _'Fuck canon,'_ I thought to myself _'I'm going to build a team of badasses, and no one can stop me'_

 _'...note to self: reign in 'bond villain' tendencies at first opportunity'_


	5. Forging a new Legacy

I sat back from the small work table I'd been toiling at for the past hour and a half, and admired the very-nearly-almost-there-finished state of my current project

' _Polish... nice and shiny.'  
_ ' _Okay... balance...looks good...'  
_ ' _She's sharp as... holy fuck that's sharp... ow...'  
_ ' _Great! Mission complete!'_

 _ **Steel Dagger complete!  
**_ _ **Weapon Crafting has increased to level 15**_

'Sweet and- Ho- holy fuck, YES! Today's the big day! _'_

Some context may be necessary. I'd fallen into a routine for the past five days, save Sunday which was still a day off here. Whilst the gang were at classes I'd work out in the gym or grind whatever skill I felt like doing that day, which over the past few days had mostly been Weapon Crafting to pave the way for my weapon.

It hadn't taken Ruby very long to draw up a blueprint after some discussion on the design for my weapons, but unfortunately the system claimed that I had insufficient skill to forge them and wouldn't even accept the plans, and trying them manually caused me to black out... I'm still trying to figure if it was just an error... thankfully Ruby had managed to save me from winding up face-first in the forge... that would have been disastrous. So my excitement was due to finally being able to make my weapon.

I quickly pulled out my scroll and fired off a text to Ruby instead of calling her, since I knew she was in class.

 _"Guess what? Level 15 Weapon Crafting! We can start today!"_

 _"Sweet, how's your aura?"_

 _"Met the pre-req' yesterday, we're set!"_

 _"Great! I'll bring the plans along after class!"_

* * *

"So, this is it?"

"Yep!" Ruby said

"Well, let's have another go"

 _ **Schematic: Aura-Craft Spear  
**_ _ **Designer: Ruby Rose  
**_ _ **Do you want to learn this schematic? Y/N**_

"Hell to the yes"

Again with the now-familiar glowing gold and absorption through the eyes. Blake had nearly flipped her lid the first time she'd seen it, at least until I explained that they were non-fiction books. Most everyone else thought it was cool, if a bit freaky. It still felt strange, and it was always strange to suddenly know something without having read it.

"Get the forge hot, I might be down here for a bit. There shouldn't be too much to do here."

"Don't you want me to stick around?" Ruby asked

"No, it's not that," I said, looking away from the incoming puppy-dog-eyes "don't you have a class to get to?"

Ruby slapped her forehead and I checked my watch

"You got five minutes to get your ass to Peach or she'll have your head." I stated "Get moving, try not to bump into anyone."

"Sheesh, I'll be fine" Ruby grouched

"I know." I replied, grin splitting my face

Ruby gave a huff and disappeared in a burst of rose petals.

"So today's the big day huh?"

"Sure is Saph. Something better than these little butter knives at least" I replied

Sapphire worked in the forges, mostly cleaning up and restocking the furnaces and welders. She knew I desperately wanted to forge my own weapon and had helped here and there, even passing on a few ranks of Weapon Crafting as a skill instructor.

"I suppose I won't see you around here much after you're done"

"Nah, this is the easiest part to make. It's only part one of three. I might need a hand for part two though"

"That's the sword, right?" Sapphire asked

"eeyup"

"Well, I look forward to it." Sapphire said, turning and heading out the forge

* * *

Forging the spear was like reciting Shakespeare from a script... okay, it was a lot more complicated, like reciting it in Japanese or something, but the auto-pilot smoothed over a lot of it. All it took was time...

Really, when you boiled it all down it was a large leaf-bladed dagger without the normal dressings on a two meter long metal shaft.

Now proper aura-forging requires that you actually forge the metal, with some measure of beating hot metal with a big hammer, instead of just grinding bevels into the one homogenous plate, so I got out two old lengths of two different metals: a softer, more flexible metal to form the core of the blade and absorb the stress of use; and a harder metal to better hold a sharp edge and point as it passed through meat and metal

I cut out a decent length of each, and then pulled out my phone. I tapped through the OS that my semblance had installed and soon activated Weapon Crafting. Immediately I felt the change.

The only way I could describe it would be like a lucid dream, not that I have many of those. I moved, like muscle memory, dropping the phone in my pocket, and getting to work.

* * *

I snapped out of the trance as I was finishing the decorations. I'd bent, twisted, beaten, ground and polished something-or-other for most of the day. Now I was wrapping the handle in blue electrical tape, careful not to get any on the brass fittings on either end of the shaft.

I was using electrical tape because it's cheap, provides a firm grip and comes in the cobalt-blue color I'm theming myself after... Because that's my name and all. Besides, I was going to seal the ends with Duct-tape so it couldn't come up and unravel, and I was criss-crossing two layers so it doesn't all unravel if the metal haft takes a hit in combat that cuts the tape.

In mere minutes I was finished. A quick check of my watch showed that classes had just let out for the day.

 _ **Crafting Complete**_

 _ **+1750xp**_

 _ **Level Up! You are now Level 5**_

 _ **+HP, SP and MP**_

I stood back and admired the fruit of my labours.

Then an absurd realization dawned on me and I laughed at how silly it was. Since the main head was a simple spring-loaded socket, I could throw jut about any old thing in there and make a new polearm. "I've made a polearm multitool" I said as the inane giggling died down "what's next? The fusion sword- I could totally make and wield those. Solid steel too... no, I don't want to get TOO ahead of myself...though, I have to admit it would be awesome to play 'kadoosh' with Cardin and a Zanbato."

The temptation to laugh like a maniac was strong, but I was trying to stop that before it became a thing. "let's just put that on the list of things I need to do at least once whilst I'm here" I compromised to myself.

* * *

"Hi, sorry I'm late" I shouted as I dashed into the training hall

Jaune and Pyrrha quickly finished their current exchange of blows and broke off the spar.

"Ruby told me you were making your weapon today" Pyrrha said "I wasn't expecting you to make it to training today"

"Ah, well... surprise. anywho, I've got the finished product here" I said, pulling my spear from my inventory.

"So it's done? Is that it?" Pyrrha asked when I showed her my creation

"Yes, and no. This is only the base, a shaft and butt-spike with a socket where the business end should go." I said

"Why not make the whole thing?" Pyrrha asked

"It's still a two-handed spear" I said with a shrug "And making the business end needs more skill than I have right now, so it's just gonna be an open socket for now."

"So are you going to train with your spear tonight?" Pyrrha asked

"That might be best" I replied "Y'know, get a feel for the weight."

"I see"

"Jaune, you up for a spar?" I asked, twirling my spear around my hand

Jaune lifted Crocea Mors into a ready stance "Sure thing"

"Tthen allow me to show off Nemesis" I said, catching my spear and stopping the spin, dropping into my own ready stance, the spear resting across my back and along my outstretched arm.

Immediately a Heads-Up Display appeared, my vision now edged with informative 'point guages', a compass, a minimap, and ammo counters, currently keeping track of the insane number of throwing knives in my inventory. It had been disconcerting at first, but as I got used to it, the extra information was rather useful.

Over Jaune's head, Observe created the illusion of the same, near his face. I knew from experience that it would circle his face, following some algorithm to seemingly keep it in easy vision.

"Ready. Pyrrha, if you'd proctor like usual" I asked

"Right. Everyone knows he rules: stop when either of you are in the red on aura" Pyrrha said. By now it was a formality, but having a third person who could separate us was required by the rules.

 _ **Duel accepted: Defeat Jaune by reducing his MP to 20% or less.**_

"Begin/ _ **Fight!**_ " Both Pyrrha and my semblance announced

Jaune acted first, charging me. The weeks of training had taught him to keep his shield up when he did, forcing me to improvise.

When he got close enough, I attacked his foot, using the flat of Nemesis' blade to force one ankle into the other. I spun to the side to dodge Jaune ramming me anyway as he fell, and used the momentum to jab my spear at his back. Jaune dodged out the way, his shield catching the blow and forcing the point to the side and into the ground, and I had to duck backwards to avoid the retaliatory swipe from his sword.

We broke, eyeing each other up, trying to judge the other's actions.

I moved first, leaping to the side and flinging a knife at Jaune's face, which kept his eyes off me long enough for me to charge, planting my spear-tip into the ground halfway between us and vaulting over Jaune's head. This time my spear connected, jabbing him in the back with Impale. Thanks to his aura, the spear didn't actually penetrate, but his mana gauge did drop an appreciable amount, though it'd take a lot more impales to bring him down.

I was too busy celebrating such a clean hit, that I barely got Nemesis up in time to block Jaune ramming the edge of Crocea Mors' shield into me, and ended up still getting Nemesis' haft in my face.

I saw my mana drop to about the same as Jaune's mana, relatively speaking. That was a rookie mistake, something Pyrrha shouted at me from the sidelines.

I backed off, a short hop to gain some distance and another knife. I had several dozen of these, probably a hundred after all that grinding. I had ammo to burn here. Jaune blocked it, then dropped his shield to protect his knees from the next, and then lifted it again to stop the one after that.

My inventory was coming into a world of use of it's own. I'd been putting anything I thought was useful into it, and it hadn't taken me long to figure out that until I figured out how to either make a gun or purchased one, I'd be down a ranged option, and lacking in defensive ones, so I decided that throwing the knives I was making to grind skills would come in handy. At least until I got something better.

I could see that this stalemate wouldn't go much of anywhere any time soon, and I had to end it soon.

I didn't get a chance to do anything when Jaune realised this too and charged. I attempted to trip him again but he'd wised up to the tactic and jumped, his full weight ploughing into me.

As I was knocked to my ass, I berated myself for another rookie mistake. This was getting embarassing. Time for a new tactic

I went for another stab, this one under it's own power and Jaune moved his shield to deflect the lethal point away, allowing me to come in and catch him with a left hook. As Jaune recoiled from the blow I kicked his knee to send him off balance and forcing him to crouch before bringing my leg up and kneeing him in the face, followed by another impale to knock him over and send him rolling away

The vicious combo left Jaune just over half-aura. I wasn't much better, at roughly two-thirds.

"Now we're even-steven" I said, a smile plastered on my face

"You've gotten better" Jaune said

"Same for you. You didn't even know how to shield when we started" I said

"Hey, is your spear's wrapping coming up?" Jaune asked

"Where!" I demanded, immediately dropping my gaze to the spear.

I realized exactly how bad of a mistake that was when Jaune smashed the edge of his shield into my face and followed it with a sword-point in the gut.

I swore violently as I recovered

"Damn you Jaune, playing me like a cheap fiddle..." I said

"Hey, you fell for it" Jaune defended

"You know, this means war." I said

"And how, exactly, would you-" Jaune started, but didn't finish as I charged

"I have the shiniest MEAT BICYCLE!" I shouted before I reached him

Jaune recoiled, not expecting the non-sequituer and dropping his guard as he tried desperately to make heads or toes of what I'd just said, before a strike caught him dead on. I pressed the advantage, sweeping his legs out from underneath him and finally dropping Jaune to the red with an overhead impale.

Pyrrha called the match there

"What the hell was that?" Jaune demanded

"Just like you distracted me with Nemesis' handwrappings, I shouted a non-sequitur. Whilst you were busy with all the 'wat', I struck." I explained

"Well played"

"You too"


	6. Throwing the Gauntlet

"A- Are you sure, like, completely sure?" I asked, unable to keep the nerves out of my voice

"you said yourself, you'll advance the fastest if you get actual hunting practice in" Pyrrha said from the podium above me

"I know, I know, but still... I'm BARELY level 5, and I can easily see that Boar over there's twice that" I shouted back

"I'm here if things go wrong, and I've seen you practice well enough with Nemesis that I'm certain you can take it"

"if you say so... just let me psyche myself up." I shouted back

I needed to prepare and quickly, before Pyrrha got bored and shot the lock off.

I checked the Heads-Up Display. Full stats on the gauges in the lower left, ammo gauge in the lower right is reading the ridiculous number of throwable knives in my inventory, somewhere close to 70 right now, and the mini-map in the top right was gonna be useless in this fight

I checked my status menu again, trying to settle my nerves

 _ **Cobalt Jinn**_

 _ **Race: Human  
**_ _ **Class: Gamer  
**_ _ **Sub Class: Militia  
**_ _ **Title: The New Guy**_ _ **  
**_

 _ **lvl 5  
**_ _ **2045/3000 xp**_ _ **  
**_

 _ **HP: 305/305  
**_ _ **MP: 320/320  
**_ _ **SP: 220/220**_

 _ **Points: 22**_

 _ **STR: 15  
**_ _ **DEX: 23  
**_ _ **VIT: 19  
**_ _ **INT: 27  
**_ _ **WIS: 10  
**_ _ **LUK: 11**_

Spending points to round out my lacking stats and a calendar month of working out had left me with a respectable total. Along with the corresponding boosts to my Strength and Dexterity my body had toned out. Gone was the potbelly at long last, replaced with hard, lean muscles.

Nemesis sat comfortably in my hand, it's now-familiar weight a comfort knowing what I was up against. My skills had progressed along similar lines to my stats, and all my active skills and defensive passive had hit the realms of level 10 and beyond.

"are you gonna get ready or what?" Yang shouted from the sidelines

I shifted from foot to foot, taking a few deep breaths and rolling my shoulders, feeling the rattle of the metal on my arm. I was wearing a stripped-down uniform with a chest-protector and some shin guards, and plate mail on my left arm for proper defence. I'd been meaning to go shopping, but hadn't had much time between grinding all my skills and re-applying the food and rest buffs.

"okay, Ready!" I shouted, but couldn't complete my sentence before a loud bang echoed across the arena

The Boarbatusk erupted from the cage as soon as the lock was compromised. It sniffed around for a few seconds before catching sight/scent of me and charging.

I charged back, spear held at the ready.

Once we got within feet of each other, I planted Nemesis' point into the sand and used it to lever myself upwards in a big **Vault.** I sailed over the Boar and landed behind it as it pulled itself around and into a halt. I quickly leapt forward with impale, but missed as Nemesis' point skittered off a bony plate.

"shit" I cursed as the Boar charged me again, and I narrowly spun out the way, using Nemesis to inflict a shallow wound on the Boarbatusk's more lightly-armoured flank.

"god, this takes me back" I said, remembering when Weiss did this in the show

"go for the underbelly, it's got no armour there!" Ruby shouted

"man, this _REALLY_ takes me back" I said to myself

Then the Boarbatusk curled up and began to spin in place like a flywheel.

I waited for the inevitable charge, dodged to the side again and spun nemesis like a quarterstaff, using the blunt weight I'd installed in the socket as an impromptu pole-mace to smacked the boarbatusk like a baseball.

 _ **A New Skill has been created! Heavy Strike!  
**_ _ **Cunning Brutality at it's most basic: Hit them even harder when they ARE looking for stunning results that will knock their socks off.**_

The Boarbatusk was knocked back two feet by the strike and uncurled, dazed and stunned.

I quickly saw this was my chance and went in for the finisher. I leapt and brought the spear over my head, landing on the boar at the same time I plunged my spear between them, aiming for the heart (or at least where it should have been), the gravity- and frenzied-muscle-driven point of nemesis easily puncturing the Pig's hide.

The Boarbatusk let out a choked squeal before collapsing. I twisted the spear and pulled it out just to be sure.

I fell backwards, landing roughly on my butt, panting from the exertion and the adrenaline

"holy shit I did it!" I said

 _ **Congratulations**_

 _ **+24,832 xp**_

 _ **Level up! Level up! Level up!  
**_ _ **HP, MP and SP Restored!  
**_ _ **+HP, MP and SP**_ _ **  
**_

 _ **Quest Complete: First Test  
**_ _ **+2500 xp; +5000 cr**_ _ **  
**_

 _ **Level Up!  
**_ _ **+Hp, Mp and SP**_ _ **  
**_

 _ **A New skill has been created: Leap  
**_ _ **Leap impossibly high and drive your spear down into the enemy. Death from Above!**_ _ **  
**_

 _ **Thanks to learning it's Signature Skill, you have unlocked a new Class! Dragon Knight  
**_ _ **A high-damage spear-weilding Class that focuses on spear and polearm techniques, and gains bonuses to movement and critical damage.**_

 _ **Title Gained: Apprentice Dragoon; +50% Spear and Polearm Damage, +50% Jump Height**_ _ **  
**_

My eyes bulged out their sockets

I didn't realize I'd frozen up until Pyrrha shook my shoulder

"are you okay Cobalt? You were all frozen up"

I quickly shook off my stupor and replied "yeah, I'm okay. Just got some insane rewards from that fight... the good news is, I'm level 9 now, and I feel like I could wrestle an Ursa- please don't actually make me wrestle an Ursa."

"the Bad news?"

"there is no bad news. I just created two new and useful skills for my spear, gained a new class and title, and drew my first blood, and know I could do that last part again easily... all in all, today is a good day"

"hey, did your wallet explode Cobalt? There's a wad of cash over here" Nora shouted

"firstly, when did you get here, two I own neither a wallet or money to put in it" I said walking over to see what all the hubub was as an out-of-breath Ren ran into the arena

I was stopped short when I saw that there was in fact something in the Boarbatusk's ribcage. I looked closer and, sure enough, there was the aforementioned money, next to a small crystal or gemstone.

I picked both up, and didn't expect my semblance to chime in.

 _ **1500 Lien acquired**_

 _ **Small dust crystal (Red) acquired**_

"Dust... and Lien... from a Grimm... guys, I now officially am receiving those inexplicable random RPG drops from dead mobs."

"say again, in plain Valic this time" Yang requested

"if you smack a monster enough times it explodes into goodies like a grisly pinata" I clarified, chuckling at my own euphemism whilst I stashed the loot in my inventory

"what?"

I sighed

"it's simple: kill bad guys, get loot" I explained

"where have you been all my life?!" Yang asked

"plotting, planning and wishing in the wondrous land of Far Far Away." I replied with only a moment's hesitation

Yang paused for a moment before saying "I'm not sure how I'm supposed to respond to that"

I could only shrug.

I checked my watch and saw that it was lunch time.

"who's up for grabbing a bite to eat?" I asked

* * *

"...So, there we were, in the middle of the night-" Nora recounted

"it was day" Ren interrupted

"Surrounded by Ursa-" Nora continued as if Ren hadn't just interrupted

"they were beowolves"

"Dozens of them!" Nora shouted

"two of them"

"and me and Ren made a boatload of lien selling ursa skin rugs" Nora finished

"she's been having this recurring dream for a month now" Rean explained.

"that sounds oddly familiar" I said, brow furrowed

"really?!" Nora asked

"I personally haven't had that dream, but I swear I heard that story somewhere bef- before" I said, unable to stop my hesitation as I remembered exactly where

"say, Jaune, I hear you went up against Cardin earlier, how'd that turn out?" I asked

I had to check, had to know

"did someone else tell you?"

"I kinda overheard it, but I didn't catch the results" I lied

"it was close, and Jaune got a few good hits in" Pyrrha said

"but Cardin won, and Jaune tried, but couldn't quite keep up" I summarized

Jaune hung his head "yeah"

Crap. I might've been a bit strong on him

"chin up man, sucking at something is the first step to being sorta-good at something… and, honestly, if it were you before Pyrrha's training, Cardin would have pounded you into the ground like a Jaune-shaped nail... er, moral of the story: you're not as shit as you think you are" I said

"I'm sorry, what does this have to do with Nora's dream?" Weiss asked

"everything and nothing. I'll explain later if it's gonna bother you, which I'm certain it will, but that's a conversation to be had behind closed doors" I explained

I was interrupted by laughter echoing across the cafeteria

"cue the school bully picking on the timid minority, for no particular reason other than might makes right."

Sure enough, Cardin and his team were making fun of Velvet.

"and thus begins the tale of an ensemble dark horse" I muttered

"did you say something?" Blake asked

"more to myself than anything. Auditory learner, simulated discussion conducive to learning" I said, beginning to motormouth as I recited the quote.

"who, Cardin, nah, he just likes to mess around" Jaune said

"I draw the line at locking you into a rocket-powered locker and firing you off to a set of random coordinates. Don't kid yourself Jaune, if you'd landed in the emerald forest, I'd be pulling you out of a beowolf's teeth, and Cardin wouldn't have even felt sorry" I said "don't pull this machismo, 'I can sort my own problems out' crap on us."

"ooh!" Nora exclaimed, standing from her seat "We'll break his legs!"

I snickered

"besides, it's not like he's just a jerk to me, he's a jerk to everyone" Jaune defended

"Ow that hurts!" Velvet shouted as Cardin grabbed her rabbit ears roughly

"are we seriously gonna just sit here and let this happen?" I asked

"but starting a fi-"

"fuck the rules, Justice must prevail" I said "whose with me for pulling him down a peg?"

I only got stares.

"fine." I said, drawing a knife from my inventory.

"don't-" Weiss started

"Oi! Piss-for-brains!" I shouted

Cardin looked up to get a very sharp knife landing point-first in his face. With his aura the potentially-lethal strike was more akin to being punched in the face

"what the hell was that for?!" Cardin shouted angrily

"if you really don't know, you don't deserve me telling you, but I'm not gonna stand around with my thumbs up my arse whilst you do it." I retorted

"you mean her? Seriously? You know bestiality's illegal right?" Cardin replied

"still picking on someone for no good reason. Or do you mean to tell me you've got such a complex that you need to be an arsehole. I mean, yeah it might be small, but that's no reason to be a dick about it." I fired back.

Cardin was seeing red, he let Velvet go and stalked up to me.

"what're you gonna do about it pipsqueak?"

My answer was a knife to the balls, which, again, his aura blocked

You could almost hear the entire crowd wince in sympathy.

Cardin immediately dropped his hands to his assaulted groin. Fighting through the pain, he raised a hand for a haymaker only to find my favourite kukri at his throat

"now, now. Let's not"

"give me one good reason" Cardin demanded

I glanced over Cardin's shoulder "for one, professor Goodwitch right there" I lied

Every head in the room immediately snapped to where I was looking

As Cardin turned back, I sucker-punched him.

"sucker" I punned

"Why you little-"

"That's enough! the both of you!" Professor Goodwitch shouted, her glyphs immediately propelling us apart and holding us there.

The room immediately went silent.

"well... speak of the devil" I said

Glynda sent a stern glare my way

"Mr. Winchester, I'll see you for detention later and I expect more professional conduct in future. Mr. Jinn, you'll be serving detention until you can learn not to pick fights outside surpervision"

"doesn't Ozpin see all in his school?" I asked

Glynda blanched "whilst I must commend your observational skills, that is still not a valid excuse."

Before Goodwitch left, I had one more card to play.

"yo, Cardin. Wanna wash your hands of this business? If so, consider this an official challenge to a duel in a week's time" I shouted

"ha, you're on dickweed."

"Excellent. Let's sweeten the pot: winner takes all: I win, you leave Velvet, Jaune and myself alone. You win... well, I'll leave that for you to decide. Within reason" I said

"deal. See you later, loser"

I watched both Goodwitch and Cardin leave the cafeteria, and soon things went back to normal

I walked up to Velvet.

"you alright?" I asked

"y-yes." Velvet replied "You didn't have to do that you know; now he's going to be after you"

"well, I didn't like him already, and that sort of shit is just inexcusable" I said "what sort of sadistic fuck enjoys other's pain? Anywho, I was thinking you might want to sit with us y'know. Safety in numbers and all."

"um-"

"you don't have to, feel free to say no and all... just, if your team aren't around-" I babbled

"I'd like that"

"oh, well, okay" I said

RWBY and JNPR silently regarded me as I sat down

"what the hell was that?" Weiss asked, breaking the silence

"an improvised plan" I said "step one, challenge Cardin. Put bluntly, he's a monster in the making, and if he's going to be a defender of humanity, as per the job description of a hunter... I weep for humanity."

"that seems a bit dramatic" Blake said

"step two, get good enough that this gamble isn't going to bite me in the ass. To that end, I'm looking for a trip out to emerald forest to grind levels." I continued "if anyone wants to come with, I'd appreciate the bus"

"how does that-" Velvet began

"it ties in with my semblance" I interrupted "second, use the loot money to buy arms and armaments. Exactly what depends on what strikes my fancy and what I have a mastery for"

"shouldn't you-" Pyrrha began

"if my masteries were higher, and I had time, yes. For now, all I can do is grab something spectacularly strong and hope Cardin goes down quick" I interrupted

"have we met?" Velvet asked

"I'm sorry?" I replied

"you knew my name, and I'm very sure we've never met" Velvet clarified

"ah, that'd be my semblance... more or less, I'm a videogame character, and my body and mind act as such. Part of that is freely seeing information about people. I can so far see your name and 'level', which is a rough approximation of your fighting ability just floating above your head... which, I puts me at quite an unintentional advantage. Sorry. I'm Cobalt Jinn, and these are teams RWBY and JNPR, who I'll let handle their own introductions" I explained

"that explains a lot" Velvet said

I turned to the rest of my friends "Everyone, this is Velvet Scarlatina."

There was a round of greetings

Eventually talk drifted in and out and things returned to normal as we enjoyed lunch.

* * *

 **Hola friends, I'm here with your weekly update.**

 **my resident grammar Nazi (read: Proof-reader) has gone dark, so once again things are all sloppy on the spelling/grammar front. hopefully you can ignore such things.**

 **other than that... well, real life looks perfectly poised to absolutely shrek me within the next fortnight. here's hoping it clears up soon.**


	7. The First Test

"you're serious about this plan?" Ruby asked

"as I'll ever be"

"you killed one Boarbatusk, and now you're going hunting?" She asked again

"I need to step up my game" I replied

"this is more than one step" Ren said

"that's why you guys are here. We're sharing XP, I'll level up, we all get paid with loot drops, and everyone profits" I explained

"I'm only here to be there when you're proven wrong Jinn" Weiss said "I seriously doubt your semblance spontaneously generates items"

I just smiled. "just keep an eye out for trouble, so we can steer ourselves towards it"

Weiss 'hmmph'ed' and continued walking

As if on cue there was a rustle and a twig snapped

"figures. Battle positions people." I ordered

Weiss 'hmmph'ed' again and took up her position.

 _ **Beowolf**_

 _ **Lvl 12**_

A Beowolf jumped out the brush and tried to rake me with it's claws. A quick jab with Impale speared it through the throat and deposited it at my feet where another through the back of it's head finished it off.

"all too easEEP!" I said, quote changing into a startled cry as another Beowolf attacked. I had barely fended that attack off when another also attacked.

"fuck off" I said, slinging a knife at the one on the left. The one on the right tried to counter attack but was clubbed upside the head for his trouble.

It was about then that I noticed we were encircled by about ten, including the one I killed

"tell me *grunt*, what are the chances there's an- *grunt*-an Alpha?" I asked, parrying a claw swipe and counter-counterattacking

"good!" Ruby shouted

I cursed. Then I ducked an attack, cursing again and countered, managing to kill the beowolf.

I was afraid of that... but not unhopeful. An Alpha would be strong, but the potential loot and XP rewards were too good to pass up.

A howl echoed through the clearing, and the remaining beowolves, all three of them, backed off.

"Speak of the Devil" I said as the name and title appeared in the underbrush

 _ **Alpha Beowolf**_

 _ **Lvl 29**_

The Alpha Grimm stomped into the clearing, he vaguely resembled a werewolf, with bone white spikes and a skull mask marked with blood-red just like his comrades that we'd been killing for all of... two minutes? if that?

The difference was that instead of the usual six feet, this one had another two feet on that, so that he towered over us, and his sinewy torso was sprinkled with small bone plates.

The creature snarled, scratched the ground and pointed, repeating the process once before looking at us expectantly.

It took me a moment to realise that he hadn't been pointing at _us_ , but rather at _me_.

"you... have _got_ to be kidding me" I said

 _ **Alpha Beowolf challenges you to a Duel**_

 _ **Accept? Y/N**_

"I've never seen a Grimm do _that_ " Nora remarked

"what, call off the pack members and challenge me to a duel?" I asked, half in jest

The "What" that Weiss shouted was probably audible back in Beacon

"this is not a fight you should be picking" Ren warned

"I know that, it's three times my level" I said

The 'wolf howled again

" **Yes** ,yes, we know you're the- oops."

"Oops? What's Oops?" Weiss demanded

 _ **Duel Accepted**_

"please tell me you didn't-" she said, seeing the notification appear

"fuck" I said, mind reeling as a thirty second timer began counting down

Ruby tried to move in front of me but found she couldn't

"I can't get to you Cobalt, there's some kind of force field in the way"

"Weiss, if you could hand me a bunch of dust, that would be lovely. lot's of types, Im gonna need 'em" I said

"what do you need that for?" She asked

"Recreational purposes." I said, giving her my best 'are you serious' face.

"fine, but if you die-"

"then you will be next in line to kick my ass so hard I bounce, right after me" I interrupted "Ren, get help, if things don't go well, I'll need a small miracle to survive this."

Weiss produced a speed-loader for Myrtenaster and handed me the vials of powdered dust

"be careful with that, it's unstable" Weiss warned

"I know, I read your pamphlet; Dust for Dummies" I said

"you actually read that?"

Stashing the dust in my inventory I pulled up my status screen. With some rapid-fire button mashing, I quickly dumped all twenty stat points into strength and dexterity. I'd need to move fast and hit hard if I had any hope. This would be a war of attrition on my side, and I was probably going to end up a one-hitpoint-wonder.

Now, with less than ten seconds on the timer, I rolled my shoulder once to lossen them and dropped into a ready stance

Five...

Four...

Three...

Two...

One...

As soon as the timer ended, the Beowolf lunged. I dived to the side to avoid the deadly claws and brought up my prize from fighting the Boarbatusk: the single, small red dust crytal4

As the old adage went. Kill it with Fire!

Acting on a whim, I inhaled deeply and exhaled aura-laced breath over the crystal held between my forefinger and thumb.

The end result was that upon contact with the crystal my breath became a small torrent of flames.

 _ **A Skill has been created through an action; Flamethrower**_

 _ **This skill allows one to use dust to breath gouts of fire over one's enemies with aura-laced breath**_

I noticed the skill dropped my mp by about a tenth.

Good, I didn't just rip dust off Weiss for no good reason. I was going to get some mileage out of my aura.

I tried flamethrower again and got a much more impressive display. Bright orange flames washed over the alpha beowolf and caught his fur alight

I saw the beowolf's health begin to drop. Flamethrower itself didn't do much damage, nor would any of my attacks, but I remembered one thing and that was that poison takes 16 turns to kill a pokemon. My plan was to stack enough debuffs through heavy and creative dust use to just drain his health and cripple his ability to fight me.

Thankfully, as it burned the 'wolf's health began to slowly deplete at an appreciable rate. All I needed to do was drag this out.

The flaming 'wolf lunged again, and I leapt back, to the edge of the clearing whilst simultaneously sending a knife in it's direction. The wolf ignored this and came in with a follow-up swipe which I took as an opportunity to leap over the wolf.

I struck again, this time a heavy blow with the weight, knocking the creature on it's belly.

Impale struck again, needling it, then I was back-handed across the clearing as the wolf rolled over.

The good news: my aura had taken the hit.

The bad news: all three of my status bars had united into one yellow 'last-stand' bar.

fuck.

I'd need to slow him down, but the question remained: 'how?' I had basic dust-related skills at best, so I'm guessing time dust was a no-go...

Wait, that's it- oh, and then Weiss-

I pulled the speed-loader from my inventory and pumped my Aura into the vial of yellow dust.

The Wolf had used this time to recover, still on fire and loomed over me ready to ruin me and my plans

I felt the loader recoil violently as a yellow glob was launched and splatted across the 'wolf's chest.

I realized what it was as skill knowledge flooded my head: a beacon signalling a greater phenomenon

The end result? I consumed over half the vial and a brilliant bolt of lightning lanced the air between us with a deafening roar and a brilliant flash of light as the sheer electricity ionized the air.

 _Note to self: Lightning bolts are effectively particularly dangerous flashbangs._

 _ **A Skill has been created through a special action: Thunder Grenade**_

 _ **A skill to use dust in a medium-ranged attack to create bolts of lightning, a basic expression of nature's wrath.**_

Where I had been stunned and blinded, the Grimm I had hit had been launched by the involuntary muscle spasms the bolt had induced and it had impacted the impassable edges of the arena. It had done a boatload of damage to itself that way and was standing at a third of it's health, stunned, on fire and struggling to move.

My mana had also taken a stupid-big hit from casting the skill and surviving a lightning bolt that ahd all but been point-blank. I had barely any left and I felt like I had pulled an all-nighter and was running purely on caffeine.

Like this, I realized I had to end this quickly. The Beowolf had done most of the damage to itself already when it hit an immovable barrier.

I swapped to what I hoped to be my last spell, and as soon as I touched the dust with my aura a glob of icy blue launched from the speed-loader and landed at the beowolf's feet, encasing it up to it's knees in solid ice.

 _ **A Skill has been created through a special action: Freeze Grenade**_

 _ **A skill to use dust in a medium-ranged attack to freeze everything in a radius around the impact.**_

I saw that my Mana was practically empty and decided it was time for grunt infantry work and hefted Nemesis.

Kiting a strong foe was much, much easier when their feet are frozen to the floor and their arms are numb and clumsy and they're already too busy being on fire.

It was a mockery of proper combat, poking with my spear at a foe so heavily handicapped, and with the number of debuffs he was pissing health, every second draining that all important health meter lower and lower.

Somewhere near the three minute mark, where I had become thoroughly bored and my mana started to recover from such a heavy bombardment, the Alpha Wolf gave what might have once been a roar, but came out of the dozen or so holes in it's chest as a cross between a sigh and a wet gurgle before simply collapsing at my feet.

 _ **You have won the Duel!**_

"that... that was simultaneously the most difficult thing I have ever done and way too easy" I said, talking to no one in partiular.

"that was sloppy, inefficient, and disgraceful!" Weiss said

"but effective" I countered "I killed something three times my relative strength. With three moves and thirty minutes of stabbing it that will make it nowhere near my biography."

The lesser Beowolves seemed to have scattered, so I made to start looking for loot.

I managed three steps before I suddenly fell flat on my face, out like a light.

"he's coming to!"

"what? Already?"

"did someone catch the license plate on that truck?" I said, my head pounding like someone was drumming out a speedcore concert inside my skull. My limbs burned and itched, and the light seemed especially bright. as I opened my yes, I realized I had been swamped with messages.

 _ **You have won the encounter!**_

 _ **5 kills; +32,272 xp**_

 _ **Duel won +10,000 xp**_

 _ **Quest "Live-Fire" complete +5000 xp, 10,000 Lien**_

 _ **Level up! Level up! Level up! Level up!**_

 _ **+HP, SP and MP**_

 _ **For your recent actions, you have received the following titles:**_

 _ **Prodigy, Novice Hunter, the Lucky, Underdog**_

I watched as the level up restored my status meters to full before kicking myself off the ground

"well, that was a thing"

"h-how?!" Weiss asked

"the sudden shock of a level up to my system" I explained "put me at peak condition"

I turned to Nora

"Lieutenant, did you collect the loot?" I asked with a big grin

"no sir" Nora admitted, grin as wide as mine

Sometimes the best way to deal with madness was to play along.

"Grab Ruby and collect as much as you can" I ordered "that means anything that isn't nailed down, and isn't dirt or a tree."

I had about a minute's wait before Nora and Ruby returned with a small armful of goods

"I'll need the Lien to cover equipment costs and purchases. Weiss can have the dust to pay her back for all the dust I used." I said

"what about these?" Ruby asked, holding up one of four bottles carrying an opaque fluid in them. Two red, one green, one blue.

Curious, I fired off an observe on each

"health, stamina and mana potions. Take those as my payment to you. The red ones'll seal wounds, the green ones will recharge physical energy, the blue ones are for Aura." I reported

Nora had a book in her arms that I took

"finally, the book and- whoa!"

 _ **Skill Book detected: Familiar**_

 _ **Do you want to learn this skill? Y/N**_

"What is it?" Nora asked

"Familiar... I'll show you later, this might be one to check when we're somewhere safe. For now though, just be glad Blake isn't here to chew me out. **yes** "

 _ **Insufficient Intelligence; Req 50**_

"oop, ha ha ha- fuck you"

I brought up my status menu and dumped as many points as I had into Intelligence, which by some odd coincidence brought me right to 50

 _ **For increasing your intelligence to 50, you have acquired a passive skill: Mana Affinity**_

 _ **This skill represents a level of familiarity with the expenditure of mana which has revealed more cost efficient methods of gathering and using mana, whilst simultaneously increasing the efficacy of magical skills and abilities**_

 _ **With your superior intellect, you have unlocked the Mage class, which focuses on high-damage spells and support skills instead of physical abilities.**_

 _ **For unlocking the Mage class you have learned its signature skill: Energy Bolt**_

 _ **A Basic spell to gather mana into a destructive 'ball' of force and launch it with (potentially) lethal force**_

Immediately the book burst into golden light and was absorbed.

"y'now, I think Jaune's the only person to have seen that, except maybe Ozpin if he has any cameras in the Library. I know for a fact he's rigged the entire forest." I remarked

Then a realization struck me

"if he broadcast that fight and everything up to now, I want Yang to call me right now" I shouted.

I gave it thirty seconds.

I only managed fifteen before my scroll rang

"Yang?" I asked

" _yyyup_ " she answered, unable to keep the smug grin out of her tone

"fuck"

" _Blake is here. She saw_ "

"oh fuck my life sideways"

" _I saw Goodwitch leave when that Alpha showed up._ " She added

I felt the blood drain from my face.

"yes, and I believe you have some explaining to do mister Jinn." Said a familiar voice which laced a mixture of dread and unfettered terror up my spine.

"This is why I'm an Atheist" I said, more to myself than anyone else


	8. Genesis

I spent the rest of the afternoon mentally kicking myself for such an obvious oversight.

I wasn't technically allowed out in the forest unsupervised, nor were any of the other students, due to its dangerous nature. I had quickly taken the blame for the whole insane plot, because it kinda was my fault.

I'd handed off most of the spoils to my companions before releasing them from the party, only really keeping the Lien for myself.

Detention saw me cleaning out the Cafeteria, mumbling and cursing all the while. It was tedious and thoroughly boring, and whilst I wish I could say I had an enlightening conversation with someone watching me work, truth of the matter is that I was kept waiting for the better part of an afternoon.

I mean, I had been given a big, shiny new spell to test out. You all want to hear about that right?

* * *

"Umm...okay?"

"Look, I am sitting here until you tell me what the book contained if you know everything it had in it." Blake said, in a tone that would brook no argument, sitting in the bed opposite mine in my dorm

I sighed.

"Okay, let's see what my skills page has to describe it," I said "I could tell you a bunch of small minutiae, but a lot of it's some sort of legalese, followed by a... is that a summoning circle?" I said, rifling through the 'innate' knowledge gained from using the book before quickly flicking to my status screen.

I read the Skill entry aloud

 _ **Familiar:  
**_ _ **Part of your soul is sheared off and developed into a familiar. Your minds and souls are linked. You may communicate telepathically, share senses or knowledge and even assume direct control over each other's bodies, with permission of course. Your Familiar possesses all your magic and personal boons.  
**_ _ **Use this skill like an active skill to permanently create a familiar spirit. Only one may be created at a time.  
**_ _ **The Familiar will gain experience points as you do, and has full access to the owners Semblance System.  
**_ _ **Familiar can survive on Mana when food is unavailable.**_ _ **  
**_

When I looked up, Blake's face had gone pale.

"Are you okay?"

Blake stammered a bit.

"It summons a guardian spirit that, historically, are supposed to help budding witches and wiccans manage their powers... I don't need help with control so much, but an extra pair of hands would be nice?" I said

"But... your soul..." Blake said

I opened my mouth to argue the point, but stopped.

"Okay, you have a bit of a point there... a small fragment of my very being, inexorably separated yet still linked." I mused

"That' a very... poetic way of putting it?" Blake said

"I do that sometimes... intelligent life, and a partner through thick and thin, or- ah fuck it all, who the hell am I kidding, it's going to bug me forever if I just let this skill sit in my repertoire never being used." I said, standing from my bed.

I activated the skill with a thought and felt my body move of its own accord.

"Hey, so, yeah, this is gonna be a thing. If you wanna watch, feel free... maybe record it so I know what it looks like if everything goes weird and my perception warps like a kitten playing with a ball of yarn."

As I said this, I could feel my aura leeching through my feet and across the ground, forming the requisite glyph.

"Wait, Cobalt!" Blake started, but I wasn't paying attention

"Seriously? A Pentagram? Like that's not overused as-is." I complained as the walls became wobbly and strange. I noticed parts beginning to fleck off like chips of old paint in a hurricane gale revealing a swirling vortex of energy that hurt to look at as colours flashed past with maddening frenzy.

"Blake, I think I'm seeing things, is the room crumbling around us?"

I felt Blake's hand on my shoulder

I turned my head but couldn't see her, just the void raging around me.

Laughter echoed all around me

"Silly human, you're in a trance, Blake can't help you in here."

I turned to the source and saw a featureless humanoid that looked as though it had been poured from liquid gold.

"I am Aurum, the archon assigned as your case worker." she (because it sounded and looked like a she) said.

"What?"

"The Company, you know which one, assigned me to be your personal devil. Any sort of Faustian deals you want to make go through me."

"Like Mephistopheles?" I asked

"Ah, an educated soul!" Aurum squealed "Yes, that is exactly it."

"That's... lovely and all that I know where to go to sell my soul, but the skill said-" I began

"I am also here because that skill affects your soul in a big way." Aurum said "You weren't supposed to have a familiar yet, so when you used the skill, it sent all kinds of alarms ringing back at HQ. They sent me to give you the necessary step up to manifest it."

"What?"

"There's not enough of 'you' there. The level drain would send you into the negatives and cripple both you and the familiar. I'm here to supply the rest. Upshot is that besides your level resetting, nothing else changes! You've just gamed the system and hard and I want to shake your hand for breaking things so thoroughly!" Aurum declared

There was a moment of silence as I tried - and failed- to process that….

"Downside is that you now owe me one." Aurum said

 _'Fuck'_

I had barely completed that thought when I felt a sudden surge of my Aura that caused it to glow brighter and brighter, until my body was practically glowing, before my chest violently spat out a tiny light the size of a light globe.

"Ooh, you have potential" Aurum said as she took the small fragment of my soul in her hand, liquid gold flowing to engulf it in a basketball sized sphere

"What?"

"Don't get cocky and stay alive, and I might just be able to teach you a thing or two" Aurum replied. I couldn't really see a mouth or eyes, but that entire sentence implied a knowing grin.

I felt more hands grab my shoulders and the sensation of being vigorously shaken.

"They're growing concerned... aaand my work is done!" Aurum explained, then declared

I checked and saw that Aurum was holding a small bundle of golden-yellow and white fur.

I didn't manage to finish my half-thought-out sentence asking what the bundle was before she placed it in my arms.

The bundle squirmed slightly, but I managed to keep my grip and found that my familiar was a fox.

"A fox?"

"A magic, sentient fox that is also a part of you, and thus one of my more intricate designs." Aurum stated proudly.

I shifted it around in my arms slightly so I could play with it a bit.

"You know, I kinda always wanted a pet fox, especially after I heard about them Grey Foxes." I admitted

"She's still very young, so treat her gently." Aurum said

"She?" I asked

"That was a surprise, and is all on you" Aurum defended

"Right."

"Right, well, my job is done here and you have your familiar." Aurum said as she floated away before fading into the riot of colours.

Eventually the room reasserted itself in my vision, slowly creeping up as I recovered from the trance state and I found myself surrounded by concerned faces. Ozpin, Goodwitch, the school nurse armed with an arcane-looking device and most of teams RWBY and JNPR, which left the four-man dorm somewhat crowded.

I jolted forward with a short, wordless shout as restraints I hadn't realized were there released themselves. It didn't take me long to realize that I was feeling drained and collapse to my knees, which in turn made me acutely aware of the bundle of weight in my arms.

When I fell to my knees, I quickly found the nurse and Ruby at my side.

"What... why are you guys all here?"

"You were projecting aura like crazy!" Yang said

"So you called a general emergency?" I asked "….yeah, I would've panicked as well."

"How?! Why?!" Goodwitch demanded, apparently beyond words right now

"Familiar. The skill everyone saw me get... apparently creating intelligent life requires a boatload of power!" I said

"You what?!"

I shifted my arms to better present the bundle of golden fur in them.

Time slowed down again to a standstill and my semblance presented another input box.

 _ **Name your Familiar**_

Oh boy... thanks for putting me on the spot there. I'm exhausted as all hell.

I fucking suck worse than Handsome Jack at naming things... the name, like many other things, had to be 'perfect' after all.

I worried and fretted and brainstormed until I remembered one word that I'd come across when researching for the Cobalt Jinn alias.

" **Lisica** "

A green tick appeared in the box and time resumed.

There was a collective flinch from all in the room, since, to them, all the shifting around I'd just done as I debated names hadn't happened and I had suddenly shifted in position, posture and even my expression.

It took me a second to realize this.

"Sorry, naming things seems to pause time" I explained

"Naming things?" Pyrrha asked

"Happened with myself, Nemesis, and again just now for Lisica" I said

"Lis-what-now?" Ruby asked

"Li- _see_ -tza. Sounds like a mash-up of list and pizza," I clarified "actually means 'Fox' in a bunch of languages, notably Croatian but you don't need to remember that."

"You named your fox 'fox'?" Weiss asked

"There's worse out there." I said, shrugging "Lisica sounds feminine, fits somewhat, isn't impossible to pronounce, and was about all I can come up with right now because I'm just _so_ tired right now"

"It's a girl?!" Blake asked

"Apparently I'm just weird like that." I explained

I thought for a moment and realized some of the implications of what I just said "Before you ask, no I don't dress in drag or any other miscellaneous weirdness you might have just conjured... this probably has something to do with all my custom characters being girls or something"

there was a momentary pause

"Where did all that come from?" Jaune asked

"all what?"

"why is Lisica being a girl such a big deal" he clarified

"Oh, that. Apparently, part of the process of making and forming a familiar is shaving off a chunk of your soul!"

Everyone but Blake performed flawless double takes, and even Ozpin had a shocked expression.

"I'm down a tiny portion of my soul, and the resulting level drain would have killed or crippled me had the company not stepped in!"

"You do realize you're not helping your case." Goodwitch said

"Lady, I mean no disrespect but I came within a hairsbreadth of killing myself, and if a friendly Archon hadn't stepped in and completed the process, I would have... as it is, I'm back at level one, with only a few days left to make up the level difference before Cardin smatters me across the colosseum. The system's already punished me pretty heavily for a stupid decision, without you piling on more timewasting detentions. I am at my wits end, and as much as I love playing twenty questions with all of you, if you would allow me to sleep this episode off and then resume training; that would be lovely." I snapped.

The room, minus Ozpin who had merely paused sipping his coffee, all collectively assumed the most comical expression with bulged eyes and slack jaws, barring Goodwitch herself, who looked to be on the verge of tearing me a new asshole.

I then promptly realized who I had said all that to, and fought the urge to panic like a headless chicken.

"Now Glynda, remember what we've said about your temper." Ozpin reminded her

"Ozpin….."

Somehow Goodwitch managed to imbue enough malice into that one word that I was fully convinced that Lisica was about to horrifically cripple me anyway, despite Aurum's efforts to the contrary.

It was the nurse who came to my rescue.

"Can you not see he is on verge of collapsing?" she demanded in a thick Slavic accent (was it Polish?) "It's not surprising he is rude, and he raised good points. I do not know what he means with all this talk of levels, but clearly he is suffering after this stunt. Let him rest, punish him later."

Goodwitch looked at the nurse's stern expression before storming off.

"Thanks for the save there ma'am... now, if you don't mind, I think I might actually pass out here." I said as a case of light-headedness began to make itself known

I beckoned towards Blake and carefully put Lisica in her arms when she came close.

"Keep an eye on her for me, will ya." I said before turning to miss her and promptly collapsing into an exhausted sleep.


	9. Recovery

Waking up for the first time was confusing for Lisica. The sheer amount of information available to her despite having been awake for a grand total of mere seconds was disorienting. Blessedly, or maybe by design, the memories were markedly distinct, and she knew they were not hers, which helped to head off an impending crisis of identity.

It took her a few seconds after opening her eyes for the first time before she began to take her first tentative steps. Of course, a lifetime of human experience was no preparation for life as a fox, something she'd get used to hopefully. After some initial awkwardness, Lisica found that the instincts kicked in when she didn't think about walking so much.

Looking around, she found herself in a vaguely familiar bedroom with- ah, there was the hanging bunk bed. This was RWBY's dorm if her- if Cobalt's recollections were to be believed.

One thing that conflicted with 'her memories' was the wealth and breadth of scent available. So many wonderful scents that her canine senses were picking up... and plenty of not-so-wonderful ones as well. the world just seemed so alive with scent, something Cobalt never seemed to pick up on.

With a few laps around the place sniffing for scents which doubled as practising her walking, she decided to go exploring and tried the door. A few unsuccessful attempts at jumping at the door handle prompted her to find a chair to stand on, of which there were none.

Lisica growled her frustration and considered her options.

Now, with all the fanfictions Cobalt had read on Earth, escape option number 2 was...

Opening the window, Lisica saw she was on the third floor (counting the ground floor as the first floor) and in true Cobalt fashion, a very bad idea had occurred to her... but first she'd need to test and experiment.

Ducking her head back inside, Lisica leapt and sprung up high enough to comfortably jump to Yang's bed.

Lisica decided that it was a shame Cobalt hadn't tested this, it was fun.

Lisica proceeded to spend some hours training the skill before searching for a target.

There, across a garden bed and a walkway, was a tree.

And with her abilities... well, it would be close.

Leaning out of the window, Lisica leaped once more, using the dragon knight's signature ability to cross the vast distance.

' _On a scale of one to ten, that was probably an Isaac Clarke... or should it be a Cobalt? Either way, at least I'm free to explore now._ ' Lisica thought to herself.

Leaping out of the tree, Lisica proceeded to explore the grounds of Beacon Academy.

* * *

JNPR had been enjoying the sun following the incident with Cobalt, and had been spending time trying to relax outdoors in an unexpected free period.

After all, with so much aura flooding the school, the rest of the lesson had basically been cancelled whilst they figured out what the hell Cobalt was doing.

"Well, at least it was only Port's class." Jaune said, attempting to cheer up the somewhat dour mood.

"I know... I still can't get over the fact that he would do that to himself. What could possibly drive a person to do that?" Pyrrha said

"You and me both, sister." Nora added

"Cobalt never struck me as a particularly troubled person," Ren added "I suppose it's always the ones you least expect."

"Hey guys, isn't that..." Jaune said

The others followed his line of vision to find a fox with golden fur and startlingly blue eyes sitting not three meters from them, cocking its head as though it was listening in.

"Li- Lisica?" Pyrrha asked, stumbling over the unfamiliar and somewhat tricky pronunciation

The fox surprised everyone when it nodded.

"Didn't Cobalt give you to Blake?" Jaune asked

There was a shrug and another nod there.

"He said it was intelligent." Ren noted

"Why are you out here?" Nora asked

The fox gave a rough approximation of a shrug, which looked surprisingly like a shrug for something that didn't possess humanoid shoulders.

"Do you want to-" Jaune began, but was interrupted by a man in an awful hurry almost running towards the medical wing

"Who's he?" Jaune asked instead of completing his sentence

"He's in an awful hurry" Pyrrha said

"I think that was Dr. K., but if he's here-" Nora said, trailing off

"Doctor K.?" Pyrrha asked

"When Nora's aura was awakened, it didn't take her long to figure out her semblance was tied to her strength, but Nora struggled to turn it off, or even scale it back," Ren explained "so Doctor Krahsniy stepped in to help... he's something of an expert with souls and semblances. My guess is he's here because of Cobalt's... incident."

"He sure got here fast" Nora remarked

"It must be serious." Jaune stated before realizing exactly what he'd said and face palming.

Curious, Lisica followed the man.

* * *

 _ **You are well rested**_

 _ **Well rested perk +10% XP Gain**_

 _ **+HP, SP and MP**_

 _ **You have rested in a recovery zone, rest time halved**_

I cracked my eyes opened and looked at my watch. Besides my phone, it was one of the few 'relics' I had from Earth.

It'd only been... wow, really? Four hours?

Damn that was a lot of time to make up, and I'd already had so much time go to horrible waste thanks to familiar, I only had a handful of hours left today and-

"God **DAMN** it!" I shouted, audibly slapping my forehead.

* * *

"Sounds like he's up." Krahsniy noted, not sure whether to be amused or frightened.

"I'll take you to him." the Nurse said

The sound of claws on linoleum directed their eyes downwards in time to notice a fox with golden fur run past them.

* * *

I had to re-do my plans now!

I cannot believe I forgot I didn't need to sleep... heck, even _eating_ was optional! They gave boosts, sure, but I didn't outright _need_ them, and with my low level, Exp gains from them would be negligible anyway.

I heard the door open and saw Lisica enter the room shortly before a strange man wearing a brown suit and a serious expression.

"I'm going to go ahead and guess you're not a tutor?" I said

"You would guess correctly." The man said with a thick accent I actually managed to peg as Russian

"I seem to be lacking some context, and I'm not going to waste time here: you're here because of Lisica, and because I've shaved off a small portion of my soul to make her, which has everyone acting like I've performed something truly unconscionable?" I said

"Yes. That is why I'm here. My name is Ivan Krahsniy, and your little self-destructive stunt has the potential to cause all kinds of personality disorders, something I would have thought you would've known about." Krahsniy said

"Not really... you'd be surprised what people just assume is common knowledge and just never tell me." I admitted

Krahsniy winced at that.

"Part of what I've been sent to discover is how you've developed this split. Normally a soul just doesn't take damage." Ivan said

"That part's easy: I learned a skill called 'familiar' from a book, which is part and parcel with my semblance, casting the spell produced a large summoning circle, which are like glyphs barring several specifics, like what, exactly, you can accomplish with them... then I funnelled a lot of my aura into, as the book described 'shaving a small part of my soul off and forming it into an animal'… coincidentally, the same animal sitting next to me." I explained

I reached down and scratched Lisica under her chin, not needing to verbally communicate the greetings or acknowledgement of such.

"We're connected still... telepathically, empathically... we can freely see through one another's eyes which... is as weird as suddenly shifting your perspective normally is, and can even hand the reigns to one another, though I'm not sure why you'd want to do that with the sheer... depth of the connection communicating just about everything you'd want to the other... also, moving limbs that your regular body doesn't have, like posable ears and a tail is all kinds of strange." I continued, exploring the bond as I elaborated it to Krahsniy

"That is... certainly something I'll need to test. I'll be honest and say that I've never had to deal with a case as unique as yours." Krahsniy said after I'd finished my spiel.

"Test? How so?" I asked

"Typically, I'll need to see your aura" Krahsniy replied

"Do I just flare it or something?" I asked

"If you could."

"Sure" I said, bringing my aura up to a visible level, whilst keeping it contained.

Krahsniy stared for several minutes.

"If you could- no, Lisica, if you could flare your aura as well, you keep yours visible as well Cobalt" Krahsniy asked

It didn't take a genius to spot what he was looking for. Our auras were visibly linked, which honestly came as a surprise.

"Interesting….." Krahsniy mumbled

"The same but not." I murmured

"Yes... I think I might have to schedule an appointment in the future. Normally I would play it safe and find a way to undo what has been done, but in this case, I think I'll see how the situation develops. There are no gaping holes in your soul as I feared, so you can relax there."

I breathed a sigh of relief.

"For now, I would take special care of her. I can only begin to imagine the consequences that would occur if something were to happen."

"I wouldn't dream of any other arrangement." I said, truthfully

"I hope to see you both in good health again soon." Krahsniy said, getting up and leaving

* * *

Initially the med-wing staff hadn't wanted to let me go. They were in fact amazed I was even walking.

They'd run the scanner over me three times before they begrudgingly let me go.

A cursory glance at my watch's date function told me I'd have to go shopping tomorrow. I only had two days until I was supposed to fight Cardin.

I pulled my spear from my inventory and began to make my way towards the entrance to the emerald forest. I was going to grind until morning to catch up lost ground and bolster my cash reserves.

A brief mental message stopped me in my tracks as Lisica suggested an alternative. No words were exchanged, but we understood one another perfectly.

I walked to the cliff overlooking the Emerald Forest, steering clear of the launch pads just in case Ozpin decided to be a dick.

I got a running start and Leapt in a bang-up impression of Initiation day.

* * *

Y'know, I actually forgot there were actually really big monsters in here.

And apparently on a one-to-ten scale of bad ideas, I was an 'Isaac Clarke'.

I waited for the Taijitu to lunge at me, mouth open, looking to kill me with its toxic venom. With reflexes honed through a short lifetime of videogames I leapt straight down its throat. That gave it something to think about.

Hey, It worked for Delta Squad in Gears of War 2, and Hercules in the Disney movie, Taijitu didn't 'get better' when you cut their heads off, and there was no way I was beating this thing from the outside.

It turns out, the inside of these critters is hot, dark, covered in slime and smells like an abattoir. Squeamish as I was, I actually hurled the remains of breakfast down its throat, adding to how unpleasant the situation was. Still, I was here to give the Taijitu indigestion, not the other way around.

I drew a pair of random knives and lashed out at my surroundings. I was rewarded with a spurt of blood in my eyes.

' _Well….That was clever.'_ I thought, sarcasm at it's best.

I wiped it, closed my eyes and mouth and started slashing like crazy, quickly building my way up to the mother of all chips that you've accidentally swallowed sideways.

We all know that pain.

I felt the muscles contract around me and nearly panicked, my knifing speeding up to a frenzy when I felt the entire head come loose around me and I tumbled out of the new entrance to its neck hole, covered in blood and throat mucus.

I felt as bad as that sounds, though I wasn't particularly hurt

I was confused as to why the entire thing came off like that, but then I realized I just basically 'tail cut' the multi-headed snake, and that was always sudden and clean whenever it popped up in videogames.

I was in the middle of deciding if I should carve loot out of the creature's hide when the other head reared up, enraged and hissing before it started making noises like it was coughing, which had me scratching my head in confusion.

The thing was obviously distressed by some unknown factor, thrashing wildly and hissing like mad, and I even noticed it's health dropping by leaps and bounds until it collapsed and a bloody crimson bundle forced its way back out its mouth.

Lisica tried in vain to shake some of the gunk out of her fur.

"Y'know, I think you might just give Zwei a run for his money." I noted, seeing the damage as my experience shot up by leaps and bounds. I hadn't really expected her to do that, mostly because it was my idea, something she had quickly realized were not the smartest plans of action.

I turned on my heels and began to look for a river.

* * *

Y'know, times like this, I wish I had a gun.

I shouted a long string of four-letter words like a mantra as I sprinted for all I was worth from the hunting pack of Grimm behind me, lobbing energy bolts and dust grenades as fast as I could generate the aura for them.

Lisica had climbed a tree three or four clearings back and was leaping from branch to branch like something out of Naruto.

"Laugh... it up... fuzz ball." I said between breaths at the palpable waves of amusement radiating through our bond

* * *

Man, how the fuck did Pyrrha do it? I'm fucking exhausted here...

And how the bloody hell- pun not intended- did I end up at the Forest Temple?

And, of all the things, why is there a wooden pawn on a pedestal?

"Either Ozpin knew I'd do this tonight, and is a greater chessmaster than I give him credit for, or he's just had this sitting here in preparation for the official event" I said as I looted the 'artefact'.

"I don't know possibility which is more frightening to be honest" I concluded

I figured it would be nice to surprise him for once... well, besides with Lisica, but that was a fluke, and thus doesn't count.

I paused for a moment

"y'know, something should have gone catastrophically wrong by now."

I felt something cold and slimy drape itself over my shoulder.

I glanced and saw a _very_ large ursa standing over me

"glad to know that tonight's still a crapshoot" I quipped before diving into a dodge roll out of arms reach of the bear, regaining my feet, and proceeding to utilise my _Run Like a Bitch_ skill

* * *

It was early dawn by the time I'd scaled the Beacon Cliffs once more.

I'd developed _**Rock Climbing**_ and levelled it up __three times and discovered that Lisica could hide out in my inventory when she needed to disappear. I pulled myself over the lip of the cliffs and made sure not to lie down on the flippers to avoid Goodwitch-related workplace incidents, utterly exhausted.

I checked my loot.

I was silently thankful the Lien was bound into little wads or I'd have never managed to loot as much as I did, already being several grand richer. I had a small stock of dust as well, and had picked up another book from the Taijitu, though I hadn't bothered to check which one yet.

It had been a busy night... and a hectic one. I had spent roughly twelve hours in the emerald forest with what I realized must have been 'beacon initiate' stats, even if I had 'signal initiate' skills... which had much improved since this evening.

Note to self: get a big-ass gun... and maybe an even a big-ass rifle so I can just sit here and grind XP... The biggest, assiest rifle I could buy. Might even plunk a major villain with it. Now wouldn't _that_ be an anti-climactic.

I had a mental chuckle at that thought. "The List" now had a new entry.

 _ **Quest Complete: Catching Up**_

 _ **Raid Complete: Emerald Forest**_

 _ **+175,000 XP, 350,000 Lien**_

 _ **Level Up!**_ _ **Level Up!**_ _ **Level Up!**_ _ **Level Up!**_ _ **Level Up!**_ _ **Level Up!**_ _ **Level Up!**_ _ **Level Up!**_ _ **Level Up!**_ _ **Level Up!**_ _ **Level Up!**_ _ **Level Up!**_ _ **Level Up!**_ _ **Level Up!**_ _ **Level Up!**_ _ **Level Up!**_ _ **Level Up!**_ _ **Level Up!**_

 _ **+HP, SP and MP**_

"Smokin'-Jesus-titty-cinnamon, how many level ups is that?!" I exclaimed

I quickly counted, did a double take and then double checked.

"Fucking 18 man. 18 fucking level ups! Man, Cardin's actually looking to be in trouble." I said, euphoric from just how well that had gone.

"Semblance OP, nerf now."

That said, I had come close to death several times... and I had since figured out that the Last Stand mode REALLY came into its own in melee combat, against melee enemies, so long as an Ursa wasn't about to step on me, but that was pretty easy to dodge so I hadn't found out firsthand.

I noticed something odd happening with Lisica.

 _ **Your growing strength has advanced the power of your familiar.**_

' _What?'_

Lisica... wasn't in pain, exactly, but it was uncomfortable, and I could feel her aura spiking unpleasantly across her body.

I swore when her tail suddenly lit up and split into two. Two tails. A multi-tailed fox...

Oh Fuck. What did you do Aurum?

* * *

 **Fun Fact: It's my birthday today, and in honour of that, I'm posting this a day early. enjoy.**

 **read, review leave critiscisms, do tell me what you think**


	10. Purchases, Plots and People

Y'know, despite the fact that I should be drop-dead tired, I was doing okay for myself. A change into a fresh uniform courtesy of my inventory's instantaneous 'equip' function and a use of Lisica's discerning nose to make sure I didn't smell, and I was really none the worse for wear.

I walked into the cafeteria, grabbed myself my usual breakfast, and then some bacon and eggs for Lisica, and sat down in my usual spot next to RWBY and JNPR

"you look like you had a rough night" Yang commented

"would you believe me if I said I pulled a solo all-nighter in the Emerald forest?" I asked between bites

There were several "what?!"s and more than one person choked on their breakfast

"you're kidding me, right?" Yang asked

No response, I was busy eating my sandwich

"c'mon Cobalt, tell me you didn't" She pleaded

"so apparently in the past... seventy two plus... ninety six hours, I've made more bad, crazy or just outright dumb decisions than I ever thought I could possibly make." I began "including charging out into the Emerald Forest on my own to gain levels quickly after a major, sixteen level setback, after realizing that RPG characters seldom need food, sleep or water, unless you're in a post-apocalypse"

"oh my god"

"good news is, everything went just as planned. No wounds, no curses, nothing to suggest I'm a weirdness magnet at all and that was all just a one time thing. I even found that Lisica's handy in a fight. I'd provide details but I want to eat breakfast right now. No way in hell I'd miss this kickass bacon." I said, taking another bite from my sandwich

"speaking of, where is she?"

I glanced at my side and noticed that the gold fox was not at her spot, and was instead acting "cute" to beg a belly scratch from Velvet, who was sitting on her own again.

What the hell is she- oh, she just likes Velvet. Okay.

"wow belly scratches sure feel nice" I murmured, which drew a few concerned glances from the others at the table, though they returned to what they were doing when I said "telepathic link".

Wait a minute... doesn't Lisica have all my memories up until sometime yesterday evening? So isn't she basically me right now? After all, the memories make the person... well, barring stuff like instincts... So wouldn't that imply... oh, wow... well, she is cute and all... and team RWBY and JNPR felt too... close-knit for me to want to just inject myself there... adding to that, the chances of awkward, neurotic, and idiotic old me getting a girlfriend at long last thanks to 'fanfic logic' were pretty good, and if I didn't want it to be with some yandere... still man, I'm not sure I'm ready for that sort of thing.

besides, how does one say "hi, my familiar helped me realize that I think you're really attractive"

I felt my cheeks flush red as the image of me doing just that played out. I reckon we'd _both_ die of embarrassment if I just went up and said _that._

Besides, I hardly knew her. I'd helped her out and cheap-shot a bully for her...

So I guess that's what I'd do. I'd spend some time and get to know her... but just up and doing that is creepy, I'd need to get my foot in the door, so-to-speak... but how?

Bingo... or rather, Lisica.

I made my excuses and walked over to the pair, tapping Velvet on the shoulder to grab her attention, which caused her to 'eep' and jump slightly.

"hi there, uh... Velvet, was it? sorry, I'm just horrible with names." I said quickly, trying to be as friendly as possible

She nodded, still looking nervous

"don't worry, I just wanted to ask a favour from you." I said "see, I've got a bit of free time on my hands, sick leave and all, and I've been sorely needing some essentials down in Vale, and I'm basically going to be out most of the day because of this... I was wondering if you could keep an eye on Lisica whilst I'm gone"

"Lisica?" She asked

"ohrightsorry- that would be the name of the fox you've been scratching to somewhere between bliss and cloud nine." I clarified, indicating the now disappointed looking fox.

"oh...why me?... and why does she have two tails?" Velvet asked

"she's a magic fox... a very magical fox" I answered. "she seems to have taken a liking to you... uh, feel free to say no and all... I don't mind, really" I replied

"I'm sorry, but I have a lot of classes today" Velvet said

"ah, I see... well... hmm..."

With a little quick thinking Lisica was in on the plan, which seemingly amused her to no end.

She made the biggest most adorable puppy-dog eyes she could, and was honestly giving the few times Ruby had used hers on me a run for her money. The adorableness overload was too much, and I had to avert my eyes, lest I d'aww

It didn't take long for Velvet to cave

I felt dirty, and had to reaffirm to myself that I would make it up to her.

"Thanks a bunch. You just need to keep an eye on her; she's smart enough to look after herself for the most part" I said, turning to leave before stopping.

"since I'm going to be in Vale anyway, you want me to get you something whilst I'm down there? Y'know, for kinda just up and dumping this on you" I asked

My watch beeped out an alarm.

"crap, sorry, I gotta go. If you think of something, Lisica knows my phone-number" I said, quickly heading out to the airship landing pads

* * *

You'd be surprised what being a Hunter Trainee gets you in Vale.

For example, most places had a nice little discount... which was not unreasonable, since it was basically the armed forces discount you can get on Earth.

That, and apparently there's a special selection of hunter's clothes in most clothes stores that have special fibres woven in to help keep them from wearing out or getting damaged in a fight, which had come about due to hunters constant demands for hard-wearing outfits that were still somewhat fashionable... it wasn't bullet- or stab-proof, at least against anything carried by any self-respecting hunter, and most grimm, but I'd have to worry less about my clothes catching fire or tearing when my aura got low, and it was supposed to repel water and, well, blood... somewhat, which would be useful.

I picked out a few outfits and changed into one of them in a bathroom

Since my name was Cobalt, and such was the colour of my Aura, I had decided to just make that my theme colour, since I was already two for three in that department.

I grabbed myself a light blue T-shirt and some black cargo pants and replaced the dress shoes I'd been using with a pair of short, dark blue combat boots, and over the top I wore a big cobalt blue greatcoat with a black inside, which was more of a stylistic choice, but I fully intended to take it apart to sew in armour plates, so it could actually stop swords and bullets... after all, I was basically relying on my big bag of tricks, and armour-plating my coats and jackets seemed like a good addition. They were basically Kevlar already, and the extra weight might even train my strength.

After pulling together some outfits (and a few prayers I wouldn't have the pleasure/misfortune to stumble across Coco anytime soon, lest I find myself here for a week) and paying for my purchases with a decent amount of my hard-earned Lien, I navigated my way to a hunting supplies store.

The walls were lined with just about everything imaginable, from utility axes and knives to power cells and a not-insignificant display dedicated to ammunition.

I browsed through, picking out a few pieces that I didn't think I was going to be able to make at the forge. things like flashlights and carabiners

Though I had something else on my mind when I approached the counter

"Hi, can I help you?" the Clerk asked as I neared

"actually, yes. Do you know if I can get some custom ammo made?" I asked

"Can I see some ID?" She asked

I brought up my scroll, which also served as a sort of Hunting License and ID, and tapped it against the scanner.

"Beacon? Well then, sir, do you have specifications for this ammo?"

"I do" I said, pulling blueprints Ruby had drawn up for me during the same design session that had produced the plans for Nemesis from my inventory.

"if you would leave that with us, we can get a quote to you in a few hours" she said

"sure thing"

* * *

"you realize exactly what these rounds are, and what they do" The man the clerk had said would be behind my new ammo asked

"yes, and yes." I said

"dare I ask how you came up with the idea?" The armourer asked

"I pulled them from a science fiction series I love dearly... they were used because the bad guys were so bloody tough, and I was looking for something to utterly ruin the bad guys... on that note, since you do ammo, do you do guns as well? I'd manufacture it personally, but I've got a short schedule and no clue how to do it myself." I explained, pulling more blueprints and a wad of cash from my inventory.

The armourer glanced the blueprints over

"I see... you're not skimping out on anything are you?" He asked

"Go big, or go home. If you're gonna take on the things that go bump in the night, you should walk softly, and carry a BIG gun" I said, quoting once more

"well... if this thing is as solid as it looks, you'll have exactly that" he said

"I know, this came from the same stories as the bullets... it's meant to clear closed areas quickly, but I'm sure I could threaten Nevermore with this thing" I said

"well, you're not wrong" the man said "I'll make it... You're still crazy though"

"what hunter isn't, just a little?" I asked

"even for a hunter, you're crazy"

"I read fucked up shit, there's a difference... and I'm far from the evilest thing out there. How soon can it be done?" I asked

"I can make two 30 round magazines today, and I think I've seen some of these parts before on other guns, it shouldn't be hard to scavenge some basic parts." He said

"when can the gun be done?"

"the day after tomorrow"

I whistled "that fast?"

"it'd be a lot longer if hunters didn't have such... non-standard weapons all the time. I've got a number of parts I'd never even consider stocking otherwise"

"tell me about it. I know a person with a purse that doubles as a fold-out minigun. how she carries the thing is beyond me, and the chances of something jamming and the whole thing exploding are... astronomical... how some people look at these things and say "that's a good idea" is beyond me" I said

"ah, a reliability man are you?" He asked

"and ease of use. It's nice to be able to pick something up and use it, no if, ands or buts. After all, 'all skill is in vain if an angel pisses in the flintlock of your musket'" I quoted

"heh, I'll have to remember that one" he said, actually smiling

"so, how much of a small fortune will this run me?" I asked

It was the armourers turn to grin

* * *

 **Okay first thing's first, an annoyed rant from a knife/gun nut:**

 **I was browsing the RWBY wiki, trying to get details about Neo, because she was originally slated to appear in this chapter, and saw something that is irking me to no end when I was reading up on her umbrella.**

 **The "sword" in Neo's umbrella is most certainly NOT an estoc. The estoc (or English 'tuck', they're the same thing) is a big honking thrust sword large enough to use as an emergency lance or a short spear by cavalry and hunters of the mundane variety, often with a cruciform hilt, like you see in Dark Souls, not the tiny thing in Neo's umbrella. That "Sword" is, what? 30cm? 40? that's the size of a large dagger or a "Short Sword" (read: a Dagger that's so large it really can't be called a dagger any more) at best, and to the best of my knowledge finely tapered, needle-sharp, edgeless daggers are called stilettos. A proper, Neo-sized estoc would be roughly the size of Neo's whole umbrella or Crocea Mors, not that pissy little thing. If you want to maintain that it's a sword, then it's a Neo-sized smallsword at best, not even a proper rapier.**

 **I don't know who is spreading this misinformation in whatever circles anime writers subscribe to, but when I find them I will slap them silly for it.**

 **/Rant.**

 **I was debating with myself whether or not to post this yesterday, and thought I should finish up my 'buffer chapter' before posting this, so I had something for next wednesday.  
Good news is: I'm done with that chapter, so you get this one only slightly late.**


	11. Consequences

I made it all of five steps into the dormitories before Lisica sprung her ambush, launching herself from behind a small potted shrub like a cannonball, straight at my chest, knocking me on my back.

"Lisica? Not that I'm not happy to see you or anything, but where's- ah!" I asked, but was cut off when the subject of my question walked into view.

"Ah, you're back"

"Yeah, turns out hunters already use all sorts of odd ammunition and devices, so getting those custom rounds made was a snap." I explained

"I haven't seen you in class before" Velvet noted

"I'm on a scholarship that's supposed to have a Hunter apprentice me, but for some reason no one's come forward just yet... though, knowing Ozpin, I'm probably going to find out that the past few months have all been preparation and this final fight my 'initiation test'. I wasn't assigned classes, so I've been diddling around in the forges and training rooms, getting up to snuff with everyone else here." I explained, pinching the bridge of my nose "I even asked Ozpin about it, and apparently I don't have classes until I'm a proper student."

"That seems oddly... convenient?"

"Yeah, but then I've gotta play three months' worth of catch-up." I moaned "Which is not going to be fun..."

I realized I was letting the plan go to waste and pulled my head into the game.

"But tomorrows problems should be left to tomorrow's me. Right now, I want to thank you for keeping an eye on Lisica today." I said

Velvet looked somewhat nervous.

oh, right.

"I was thinking, if you had a spare moment, you and I could go and grab a coffee and lunch down in Vale sometime... not a date or anything… just some friendly lunch, my treat!" I proposed

Velvet still looked unsure.

"I'll let you mull it over, no pressure. Just let me know if you'd like to take me up on that offer... either way, I owe you one." I said, making to walk past her.

"Actually, if you'd do that, that sounds nice." She smiled to me.

I stopped turned, and confirmed it was indeed Velvet who said that.

"Well, I'm free just about any time. Just let me know when you've got a spare afternoon?" I said

"Does this weekend sound okay?" Velvet asked

"Sure!" I said, unable to help my smile

* * *

"So, you like Velvet?" Coco asked, not three minutes later.

I blinked at her and pinched the bridge of my nose "I think I understand what they meant when they said the only thing faster than light is the speed of rumours."

"Is that a yes?"

"Truth be told? I'm still sorting out how I feel about her... but the verdict at this point is yes." I said

"You seem like a reasonably smart fellow, so let me tell you this-"

"If I ever hurt her, you and Yatsuhashi will grind me into pink goo?" I finished for Coco

Coco blinked in surprise

"You have a minigun in your purse, and the gentle giant has a great sword as big as he is, and both of you and I know that Velvet's... delicate, and has a lot of bad experiences with humans due to her heritage, and, if I ever hurt her, I wouldn't put it past either of you, nor would I blame you, if you tied me naked and unarmed to a tree in the forest and let what may happen, happen." I summarized

Coco smirked "You're smarter than I give you credit for."

I shrugged

"You'd be surprised either side of... well, just any assumption. Trust me when I say I can be a clueless dolt when I don't want to be." I admitted

"Mind if I ask why you're going out with Velvet?" Coco asked

"oh... well... see, we didn't have a lot of Faunus where I'm from, like, you heard of 'em, but I'd never seen one, which automatically makes her awesome... and Velvet's cute and all... my problem, and presumably yours, is that I hardly know her, like, who she is, what she likes and, as I said, I'm still sorting out if I like-like her or if it's just the hormones and a hero-complex talking... hence why I'm taking her out to lunch: so I _can_ get to know her. It's not a date-date, just... 'paying back a favour', so I can see if it's a possibility. After this, we part on easy terms or pursue this further and see what develops."

Coco smiled before calling out to someone behind me.

"Okay, you can come out now"

I turned to find Yatsuhashi and Velvet had been eavesdropping from around the corner, and swore violently when Fox landed next to me from the roof.

"I have to say, this is quite elaborate, and I'm frankly amazed that you got Velvet to go along with it, again, can't blame you guys." I complimented, somewhat awed

"You were listening in too Vel?" Coco asked

She nodded. Then there was a very tense few moments as she stormed up to me and Coco.

"I thought we talked about this Coco! You can't hold my hand forever!" Velvet said, suddenly angrier than I'd ever seen her. "and you!" I gulped and stood

"Thank you for at least being considerate." Velvet said, tone softening "Lisica filled me in earlier whilst you were distracted."

I gaped in horror between Velvet and the little traitor, the latter of whom was emitting such potent schadenfreude that I almost didn't need to be telepathic to pick up on it.

"h-"

"Text to speech." Velvet explained

I was so far into the shock that I was damn-near catatonic.

"D- did I just get outfoxed... by a freaking fox?!" I eventually asked.

* * *

 **Elsewhere**

Yang felt the sudden urge to punch Cobalt for some strange reason.

She shrugged and figured she'd ask him about it later... she'd sensed the opportunity for a brilliant pun, and its fulfilment, so it couldn't be too bad

* * *

There was a collective groan from everyone else besides Lisica, who had seen the pun coming and was already halfway through a groan.

"You did _not_ just make that pun." Fox said, pinching the bridge of his nose

"I did indeed F- oh for fuck's sake." I said before realizing Fox's name.

"Eh, that one's been made before." Coco said

"Well, either way, I've got to get going. I've got things to blow up and moves to master before my fight with Cardin, and I still need to bump up my levels..." I excused myself "...and a small fox to teach the meaning of discretion!"

Fox tapped me on the shoulder

"Um... dude… not so sure about the small part"

I looked where Coco was pointing and saw that Lisica was now the size of a German Shepard.

The following telepathic message was simple.

"Looks like training starts now!" I declared before charging

* * *

"You guys seen Cobalt all day?" Yang asked

There was a chorus of negatives "That can't be good" Weiss noted

"For once I think we agree Weiss" Yang said. Team RWBY was interrupted by a somewhat familiar spear landing next to them, followed by a two-tailed, gold-and-white fox the size of a large dog. Cobalt rushed past, pausing only long enough to pick up his spear, and charging after his familiar, screaming "GET BACK HERE YOU ROTTEN LIL' SHIT!"

There was a moment of stunned silence

"What the hell just happe-" Blake began

"Cobalt" her team answered in chorus. The sound of several small explosions echoed back down the hall. "Definitely Cobalt" they chorused, pinching the bridge of their noses or rubbing their temples to ward off the oncoming headache.

* * *

Once Lisica reached the outside of the building she stopped and turned, facing inwards. I braced my spear against my side and continued my charge. Then I noticed that the normally white tips of her tails were glowing a brilliant blue. A quick check confirmed my suspicions and filled me with dread

"Oh fuck, I forgot about fox fire." I said before being engulfed in a cobalt blue inferno

I saw my mana depleted as my aura warded off the intense heat of the fire.

Thankfully, casting that was also costing Lisica mana, and just like me she needed to keep some in reserve or else risk hurting each other. I was still crispy around the edges when the twin gouts of fire finally ended

"That... hurt" I said, coughing at the suddenly dry air. "But not as much as this will" I said, bringing up a hand and casting energy bolt after energy bolt, sending Lisica into an acrobatic dance of dodging and absorbing the force from the bolts that did hit her.

Again, it cost me mana to cast these, and I had to stop soon after.

Lisica and I stared at each other across the gardens...

...and we charged. Me with my fists ready to strike, Lisica with her teeth bared, ready to cause as much damage as possible. As we neared each other, it was like time slowed down, and I couldn't help but imagine just how awesome a screensaver that would have been.

I'll just have to ask Ozpin for pictures from the security footage later.

We got in range, leaped at one another and then...

* * *

"You do realize that fighting on school grounds, outside of the arenas, is strictly forbidden?!" Goodwitch asked, Lisica -now reverted to her normal size- and I both suspended mid-air.

"Oops" I said

"Oops indeed Mr. Jinn. I don't care what your semblance is, there is no reason to destroy school property or disrespect school rules! Something I wish you'd keep in mind more often!" Goodwitch scolded

"To be completely fair and honest, we were actually trying to minimize collateral, or else we wouldn't have waited until we were outside to break out the flamethrowers and most anything that left marks bigger than a cantaloupe." I replied

"You will still be serving detention for this"

I sighed and pinched the bridge of my nose "Figures"

So that's how Lisica and I spent the first of many afternoons mopping the Cafeteria. Lisica, still without her human form for some reason held the mop in her mouth just... like... Sif...

Oh god, this is just too good to pass up.

I cackled like a madman as ideas and plans began to form in my head.

* * *

Dawn shone over a new day as I finally brushed off the last of the metal from my finished work, forging and forging until I was satisfied I had produced something I could use for its intended, hilarious purpose.

 **This Weapon requires 50 strength to wield**

' _dammit'_

Well….. I had all of 90 points to use how I saw fit from going from level 1 to level 18, and I was already halfway there... so I bumped strength by the necessary pre-requisite. That left 65 points... and the more I could completely outclass people by, the better.

DEX was the next highest at 33, and I could bring that up to the threshold easiest. More than just reflex and co-ordination, dodging, attacking, movement speed and accuracy all relied on my DEX... and all would serve me well. Dexterity can be downright undervalued at times, after all, speed is the critical resource in lethality equations.

The Buster Blade is such a stupid idea because Cloud swinging a lighter sword twice as fast with his insane strength achieves four times the kinetic force behind each strike... and, if he used a mace, he'd still have all the useful anti-armour properties of his blunt weapon...

Plus Rapiers and Katanas are cool, and actually respectable weapons than just some big-ass sword.

That left 48 points, and an impasse. Wisdom is 10, luck is 11, vitality 19... and Intelligence is good where it is, for now.

Luck has a passive effect on everything, but it means nothing if I can't get into attack range... Wisdom would improve my regeneration and improve decision making abilities, and with aura, that was a defensive improvement a well... though, if I was Lucky, I could make dumb decisions all day and be frustratingly, annoyingly lucky...

Magic defence, Physical defence, or annoying luck?

Luck is... unreliable at best and as any good Leprechaun will tell you, there are two types of luck... so no.

So that left me with either putting point into Physical or Special defence. Do I want to be a battlemage, or a striker? Or do I want to be a Jack-of-all-trades, master of none?

A Super Soldier is a warrior proficient at every aspect of war, from planning and logistics to lightning blitzes, to ironclad defence... the problem is, that takes time and effort...

Decisions, decisions, decisions... and I only had one life to make them in.

I slapped my forehead as I remembered what other uses Aura had besides casting spells and infusing my weapons to strengthen them and the alloys within. It was also my 'health' in tournament matches, and visibly regenerating aura is a mighty scary thing to face.

That settled that, wisdom it was. Boosting it to 50 still left 18 points, which I dumped into Vitality. That left me with 50 strength, dexterity, intelligence and wisdom, 37 vitality and 11 luck. So far, I was shaping up as a pretty good J.O.A.T.

I'd need to level Observe to be totally sure, but from what I'd seen, most first years had one or two stats below mine now.

I closed my status window to enact the changes and make them permanent and felt my body and soul ripple in response. My muscles growing denser and bigger to accommodate my strength, then shrinking and becoming lean and athletic once more to accommodate my dexterity, approaching the Flash's physique, rather than He-Man. my skin and bones felt tougher as well, and almost like I could withstand an armed assault naked and unarmed. I knew this wasn't actually true, but the sensation was exhilarating.

I studied the area around me and saw new things come to light, small things I hadn't noticed before... and the beginnings of an idea that I could turn into my next forge project. Nothing big or bold, merely a new type of knife.

It was... odd, suddenly being so much 'better' than what I was, improved in nearly every conceivable way... but in the end, I was still piloting my body.

 _ ***DING***_

 _ **Your Stats have reached a new threshold:**_

 _ **For increasing your Strength to 50, you have gained the Thunderous Strikes skill.**_ _ **  
**_

 **Thunderous Strikes:  
** _ **This skill represents your great strength, and effectively doubles your strength modifier when making melee attacks.**_ **  
**

 _ **For Increasing your Dexterity to 50, you have gained the Bullet Time skill.**_

 **Bullet Time:  
** _ **This skill represents your blinding speed, and grants reflexes that seemingly slow time around you, when in fact the user is moving blindingly fast.**_

 _ **For Increasing your Wisdom to 50, you have gained the Mana Reactor skill.**_

 **Mana Reactor:  
** _ **Your soul has created an all-but-impossible reaction with the mana within itself, granting an increased output into your mana reserves.**_

 _ **The synergy between your Strength and Intelligence threshold has produced the Mana Muscles skill.**_

 **Mana Muscles:  
** _ **This skill allows one to infuse their muscles with mana, spending mana to add their intelligence bonus to their strength bonus when making a strength check.**_

 _ **The Synergy between your Strength and Dexterity has produced the Piercing Strikes skill.**_

 _ **Piercing Strikes:  
**_ _ **This skill allows part of one's attack to bypass another's armour damage resistance.**_ _ **  
**_

 _ **The Synergy between Dexterity and Intelligence has produced the Critical Hitter skill.**_

 _ **Critical Hitter:  
**_ _ **This skill makes getting critical hits much easier.**_

 _ **The Synergy between Wisdom and Intelligence has produced the Mana Machinery skill.**_

 _ **Mana Efficency:  
**_ _ **This skill reduces the cost of mana-based skills.**_

'… _Holy fuck that's a lot of skills.'_

I read through each and activated the few active abilities. I reached down, and with only minor strain, lifted the great hunk of vaguely-sharp metal sitting on the anvil.

I spared a glance before throwing it handle-first to Lisca, who, now the size of a large dog who caught it in her mouth. I noticed the entire motion was just too slow. Lisica taking nearly a second longer than it 'should' have to land.

It occurred to me that this must've been how Master Chief felt after his augmentation... before he beat the shit out of those ODSTs in the Fall of Reach novel.

Well, at least I didn't have surgical scars, and I even got awesome magic powers out of the deal. Suck on that you giant green... yeah, I got nothing.

Lisica finally landed and shifted the infused Zweihander's handle in her mouth, getting a better grip. I chuckled as Lisica stuffed it into my- our inventory.

"The legend never dies" I quoted, much to both our amusement.

* * *

 **Ai'ght people, The Cardin Fight is coming up in Chapter 13.**

 **I could stretch it longer: Convert Nemesis into it's complete form, pick up my custom gun, and more, but you guys seem eager, so that's what I'll give you.**

 **and please, feel free to always let me know what you think.**


	12. Muckin' About

"Again" Port shouted with glee, as Lisica finished off this morning's fifth Beowulf.

Since my stat boost, Beowolves and the like folded like the steel I forged: Not particularly difficult (especially after being exposed to flames), but they still needed me on my toes to properly put down without getting hurt.

With another loud clang, the second last cage was released, and a Boarbatusk immediately charged us, already tucked into a wheel. A small lightning bolt brought it crashing to a halt, scorching plates and causing it's little legs to twitch spasmodically, before a deft throw impaled it and pinned it to the floor.

"Oh ho! Disarming yourself I see. Very well, I was saving this one for the advanced classes, but you've acquitted yourself admirably! Meet Edgar!" Port declared, smashing the lock off of the last and biggest cage. I took one look at the thing, saw its level, saw its title, glanced at Port like he was nuts, and then back to the creature.

 **Edgar, The One in The Cage  
** **Level 42 Tauros**

' _Well played RoosterTeeth, well played.'_

"A Minotaur?! A fucking bull Minotaur?! This thing's twice my level, are you trying to kill me-eeeeee!" I demanded until I was interrupted by the thing using its horns like a bulldozer to throw me into the air like a cheap ragdoll.

Thankfully, my Leap skill passively negated fall damage when used, though I wouldn't get much lift if there was nothing to leap off of besides thin air (otherwise I can name a few occasions where double-leg breakage would have occurred).

Unfortunately, I still took a boatload of damage thanks to Edgar's bullshit.

When I landed, I took a moment to study my opponent. The thing was eight-foot tall, covered in bony spikes and a patchwork of bony plates similar to a large Ursa's plates, the signature grimm mask with tribal designs swirling up its horns from its forehead, and was otherwise a black-furred bull-man.

He was also lacking most of his health bar, likely from Port, who was four times his level somehow, capturing him this morning, and his suffering from the forced captivity.

A brief glint revealed an Iron Ring through its nose. That might've also contributed.

"Of course Port's crazy enough to do that," I groaned as I landed "and I just let the horns grab me, not the other way around."

Lisica leaped onto the creature's back and clawed at its neck before leaping off its mask to regroup with me.

"This is what I get for asking Port for a grimm-based danger-run," I groaned, reaching into my inventory

I quaffed a mana potion, feeling a certain clarity of mind return to me "Hey, Lissy, let's see how he likes fire." I said

I gathered up a handful of dust and Lisica readied her tails as waited for the bullrush.

True to form, we weren't waiting long and the second he was in range we doused him in brilliant blue fire... Unfortunately, all that seemed to do was piss Edgar off, and now instead of an angry bull minotaur, we were dealing with one that was on fire and liable to catch us on our own fire. The second we realized he hadn't stopped, we dived to either side as a straight punch kicked up sand like a gunshot

"Time for the Alpha routine!" I declared

More dust, followed by a round of mana potions. Edgar tanked the lightning like a boss and shattered the ice, only stumbling when hit with either with Edgar able to just shrug off the status effects that had brought down the Alpha Beowolf the other day.

So I fired Energy Bolts as I ran backwards. I'd need hundreds of bolts to actually kill him though.

"Sif manoeuvre!" I shouted, devising and naming the plan on the spot.

Lisica grabbed her Zweihander from our inventory where it had sat since this morning and circled around Edgar, who was busy with the guy hitting him with what essentially amounted to a magic BB gun.

"What ho? Even the fox is armed? My, you are as full of surprises as they say you are Mr. Jinn!" Port commented.

I ignored the comment and continued to drink, shoot and run. Lisica was the perfect height to hamstring Edgar, and nimbly ducked in and out to do just that the second she was behind him, toppling the creature.

I stopped my attack and leapt when the beast toppled. Lisica threw the sword and I caught it, twirled it in my hands and raised it overhead.

"GIT GUD!" I shouted, unable to help myself as the sword's dust infusion ignited the blade.

As I landed I swung adding all my mana-infused strength to the force of gravity.

I fucked up the landing, performing an epic face-plant that my aura just barely absorbed, but that was okay, I'd just smashed Edgar with all the force of Nora in a thunderstorm.

Which wasn't enough apparently, since Edgar, shakily, slowly, got to his knees.

"Oh just stay the fuck down asshole!" I groaned, pulling myself to my feet.

I hefted the two-handed sword and hit Edgar in the face with a golf-swing, let go of the blade, letting it spin in the air for half a rotation, caught the sword by the blade, hefted it above my head and brought the pointed crossguard down behind Edgar's mask in the 'apricot'.

 **A new skill has been created through a special action: Murder Stroke**

 **Murder Stroke  
** **The act of half-handing, or gripping a two-handed sword by the blade, to use the crossguard instead of the blade to strike an opponent, granting the user an effective anti-armour attack. Care must be taken not to let the blade slip in one's grip to avoid the sharp blade cutting into your gloves/hands.** **  
**

Edgar, already dangerously low on health, died with my crossguard in the back of his head.

"A Masterful strike with a murderous stroke!" Port exclaimed.

 **Victory is yours!  
** **Assisted Kill Penalty (XP gains halved)** **  
**

 **+166,992 xp**

 **Level Up! Level Up! Level Up! Level Up! Level Up! Level Up! Level Up!**

 **Your growing strength has advanced the power of your familiar**

I glanced at Lisica and saw that, indeed, one of her two tails was splitting, giving her three. Immediately Lisica grew even larger, to the size of a Saint Bernard, in response to my unspoken question.

"My word Cobalt, do you and your companion ever cease to amaze?!" Port asked.

"You'd be surprised." I replied.

As expected, there was money on the ground, and the odd crystal of dust. Then I turned immediately when I heard a soft ***thunk*** behind me.

One of Edgar's horns had fallen off... and when I walked over to inspect it, I saw that it had brass furnishings on either end that made it resemble a winding horn

 **You have found the Minotaurs Horn, blow it to boost your physical attack temporarily!**

Curious, I brought it to my lips and blew into it, and got nothing but a stupid whooshing noise, much too quiet for a horn.

Port came over and saw what I had. "If I remember correctly, you're supposed to blow a raspberry into such horns" He offered.

I thanked him and did as he said. It took me a try or two to actually get a proper raspberry going, but when I did I was rewarded with a keen, low-pitched note.

as the note echoed through the arena, I felt like I could wrestle an Ursa

"My what an interesting discovery, where did you get this horn?" Port said, practically bulging with what might have actually been muscles.

"I think Edgar dropped it... like, it was one of his horns, and my semblance seems to do odd things to Grimm, making them drop dust and money and... think of it as a Trophy for big game hunting- oh"

It was difficult to see under his eyebrows, but Port's eyes went wide at that "My, my, my boy, Your semblance is very interesting, I might actually have to contest Bartholomew for your apprenticeship!" He declared.

My eyebrows shot up at that; I'd basically forgotten about my upcoming apprenticeship

"That's still actually a thing?" I asked "Wait, no, of course that's still a thing. Why is that still a thing actually?"

"I believe Ozpin was going to wait until after your little grudge match to decide who would be apprenticing you. He was going to use the match to show off what you can do." Port explained.

"Well then, now I'm really looking forward to tomorrow." I said

"I think we all are!" Port said

I pulled my spear from the ground. "Now then, I think I'm going to spend some time thinking up new attacks" I said

* * *

 **Several Hours Later**

* * *

"Cobalt, what are you doing?" Blake asked

"Me? Right now, I've got a free afternoon, so I thought I'd go over some of the textbooks manually." I replied

"Why would you-"

"Because I'm not easily able to recall information absorbed like that, or, at least, doing so is more difficult. However my recently boosted intelligence also hands me an eidetic, or photographic, memory."

"Oh…" Blake said

"That, and I was somewhat worried you'd skin me alive and hang me by my ankles from the clock tower if you caught me eating books again," I added "so I thought I'd limit myself."

Blake's face was somewhere between a disgusted and horrified expression

"That said, I have recently consumed textbooks on human and Faunus anatomy, robotics, electronics, machining, programming, and materials fabrication." I admitted

"That seems odd for a hunter" Blake said

"I've been pulling most of my arsenal from science fiction stories, and want to continue it with a suit of armour for when I'm really heading into the shit... Sci-Fi armour begins and ends at Powered armour, which includes robotic subsystems to boost strength and speed." I explained

I paused to gather my thoughts.

"It's risky to develop and to learn to use, but the potential to turn oneself into a walking tank, that moves like an acrobat on speed with weapons that put both Ruby and Nora to shame is too good to pass up." I explained

"Why would you need that?" Blake asked

"Why not? We're facing the things of nightmares every time we venture beyond the kingdoms. It pays to have every edge, every advantage, possible and be willing to dare try something no one else has, and to dare to dream bigger" I replied

"That is a dangerous line of thinking." Blake stated

"Dangerous thinking gets shit done. Tempered with reason, compassion, and forward thinking, you might even get the right shit done." I said "Eventually there comes a point where playing it safe gets you nowhere and you need to risk everything on a gamble... I'm sure you can understand."

Blake narrowed her eyes at me. "What do you know" she asked menacingly

I blinked for a moment

"Crap, I showed my cards didn't I?" I asked rhetorically

 _ **Quest Created: Spill the Beans**_

 _ **Story Quest Unlocked: The Stray**_

"Well, to answer. I know quite a few secrets believe it or not, courtesy of an information gathering semblance. The fact that I haven't tattled at all for the span of... all last term should hopefully corroborate that I can be trusted, at least as far as Yang can throw me." I said

"How. Much" Blake demanded

"I know what lurks under your bow, your previous affiliation and why you left, and don't blame you for doing so. I also know that both Yang and Ruby will accept this dirty little secret, as will JNPR. Weiss will, obviously, be less so accepting, but given how she was raised, and the fact that your previous associates led to her having a shitty home life, like, implied-abusive-father bad... that's going to be an obstacle at the very least, and, personally, I don't give a shit and think you and those like you are awesome." I said, carefully dodging around actually saying anything concrete.

Blake was obviously stunned

"You're going to have to confront people with your secrets, and sooner is better than later."

Blake looked pretty down on herself.

"This is an important step for personal development... also, your bow twitches occasionally. I'm a dense motherfucker so I don't notice it anywhere near as often as it normally happens, and I've been looking for it, but it happens." I said "Time to stop running and face the music."

"How do you know-wait, no your semblance-"

"-can tell me how strong or fast or smart you are, and give a very brief description of what you're like in a fight... it has yet to reveal someone's backstory, though I suspect that's totally going to be a thing; but it most likely will never unveil the future quite so casually"I interrupted "I know what I know through more mundane methods... but well, that's a story with many wild and impossible claims, zero evidence to back me up, and-"

I noticed Blake reaching for something, which I assumed was a concealed weapon.

"-I'll totally tell you, team RWBY and team JNPR everything I know right after you tell them about your little secret, does that sound like a fair trade?"

Blake scowled "Fine. But you better not chicken out."

"I was actually planning to tell all of you eventually, and prompt you into this... just didn't think it'd be so- Oh Lisica, you're back, did you find-" I said, interrupted by the arrival of said golden fox.

Lisica produced a pair of books.

"What are those for?" Blake asked

"A manual on a Wushu technique called Zui Quan or the Drunken Fist, the other is a hand-to-hand technique disguised as a dance called Capoeira. I wanted both because I have a few suspicions and changing techniques and styles on the fly is a good way to create openings." I said

I picked up the book for the Drunken Fist and quickly absorbed its knowledge. It took me all of three seconds to burst into laughter.

"What? What's so funny?" Blake asked

"Because of movie and game logic, being drunk actually boosts the power of my drunken fist techniques!" I said between bouts of laughter "In reality, these techniques are acrobatic and require balance and coordination to pull off, something being drunk is not conducive to."

"I... see." Blake said

I absorbed Capoeira next

"Oh, it's a kick style. Yang's gonna hate me now. I'm going to literally dance around her attacks once I get good at these." I said with more laughter.

I then remembered where I was

"Oh, sorry I got distracted. So I'll tell all when you do, and please let that be sometime before the students from rival academies arrive and after this weekend okay? I have plans up until this weekend, and things go to shit after Weiss takes you all to case the competition." I said

"You better deliver…."

"Like the fucking milkman." I promised


	13. The Fight we've been waiting for

I had decided to get a full night's sleep the night before my match with Cardin.

I really had nothing I could practice or make before the match. I was disappointed that I couldn't buff forge enough to complete Nemesis in time, but I'd expanded my repertoire quite a bit.

However, as it turns out, I was in for an... _interesting_ morning.

* * *

 _ **You are Well Rested!**_

 _ **HP, SP and MP restored!**_

"Good morning world" I grumbled.

I've said it before, but I belive it deserves restating: I'm not exactly a morning person... but I'm awake now, and I'm going to stay that way, dammit.

My attention was snatched away as I felt a weight move on my chest. I was far and away from my morning coffee, so I looked down and proceeded to not comprehend what I was looking at.

After all, There was a small girl sleeping on my chest...

...

...

...

THERE'S A SMALL GIRL SLEEPING ON MY CHEST!

Reflexively, I quickly flung the (surprisingly) small weight off my chest and across the room, rolling out of bed and assuming a combat pose, wondering how she got into my room.

She was short, with ankle-length golden hair, which- didn't rule out Neo... well, maybe...

She was also wearing nothing but her birthday suit.

I recoiled at the unbidden and sudden full-frontal exposure.

"gah! Put on some clothes goddamnit!" I shouted covering my eyes

"wha- oh shi-!" The intruder exclaimed

I only had to wait a moment before she shouted "done!"

I uncovered my eyes and saw a few odd things.

Firstly, the intruder was a faunus if the ears were anything to go by.

That and she was young. Like, younger than Ruby. I'd say... 12 or 13 at the most

And I specifically remember buying that outfit the other day. The one with the long-sleeved cobalt button-up and dark cargo pants. What gives? Is she some kind of stalker or something? and- how on earth did that outfit go missing from my inventory? I thought only Lisica could do that.

speaking of: where's Lisica?

I probed through my link to my familiar and saw through her eyes for a moment, only to be rewarded with the confusing image of looking at myself.

a quick check and the viewpoint was... that of the strangers... how-

Then I began to notice details. The exact shade of her golden-blonde hair, the stark, brilliant blue of her eyes I'd only seen one other place, or that what I thought was ankle length hair was, in fact, back-length hair and three fox tails with white tips, all slowly curling around each other like coiling a rope, hiding them as one large tail.

"Lisica?" I asked

"it took you this long to figure out?" Lisica replied

"how- no, wait, Kitsune. I should've seen this coming I suppose" I said, pinching the bridge of my nose.

Lisica just smiled as I mentally kicked the shit out of myself.

"the important question now I suppose, is how the feth do I explain this to the others?"

* * *

 **15 minutes later**

"greetings Ladies and Gents" I said as I approached the usual spot at the cafeteria "I'd like you to meet my new half-sister"

Several "what's!?", bouts of choking and Weiss even performed a _flawless_ spit-take.

Then Lisica sat next to me, almost comically small amongst the 17-year-olds

"could you try to go a day without doing something super weird?!" Yang demanded

"meet Lisica" I finished

"what did you do?!" Weiss shrieked

"Kitsune naturally learn to take on 'human form'." I replied without hesitation, pausing only to use air quotes.

"human form?!" Blake asked, looking at the girl who was clearly a faunus.

"naturally, in the old tales you see the Kitsune pop up in, there's a few tell-tale signs you're dealing with a fox and not a human, y'know, the tail, the ears, all in all leading to them resembling a Faunus... albeit, one with an improbable number of appendages" I explained

"hence half-sister" Blake surmised "you created her, but 'daughter' would raise more question given how close you two appear in age. She's a part of your soul, so, as strange as it seems, sister works, but she's a 'faunus' and you're a human, so half-sister"

I blinked

"that's... that's exactly it, holy shit." I said.

Blake looked like she wanted to continue, but she stopped as she noticed something behind me. I followed her eyes to find Cardin looming over me and Lisica

"save it for the arena numbnuts" I said, interrupting the bully before he could speak "I've been sure to keep Goodwitch extra pissed off at me to make sure she's gonna hound me. One wrong move near me and she'll see."

"Whatever. good luck pipsqueak, you'll need it" Cardin said

I glared daggers at Cardin's back

"pipsqueak? I at least had a semi-original insult" I spat once Cardin was out of earshot.

"what're you gonna do?" Ruby asked

"wait. He'll get what's coming to him."

* * *

Cardin and I stared each other down from across the arena. Whilst I was waiting for Goodwitch to finish explaining things I checked my quest log.

 _ **Quest: Jaunedice  
**_ _ **Prevent Jaune's Blackmailing [X]  
**_ _ **-Set up Jaune's Training [X]  
**_ _ **-Redirect Cardin [X]  
**_ _ **Stop Cardin's bullying [ ]**_ _ **  
**_

 _ **Quest: Duel!  
**_ _ **Defeat Your Opponent [ ]  
**_ _ **(Optional) Break his Legs! [ ]**_ _ **  
**_

"Begin!" Goodwitch shouted

Cardin opened up with a predictable charge. I stabbed Nemesis into the ground and dodged, spinning out of the way and turning the motion into a kick directed at his stomach, causing him to double over. I then leaned back, 'sloshing the wine' into my hand before leading it in a huge arc over my head and into the back of Cardin's head in a massive palm strike, sending him to the ground.

All this had been one motion that almost looked practiced.

I shook my hand out, since my knuckles hurt from their collision with Cardin's thick skull.

I felt my feet get swept out from under me. At the same time, for _completely_ unrelated reasons, It occurred to me that Cardin wasn't totally stupid, and that aura absorbed blows like that for the bearer.

I followed my instincts and contorted my body to meet the ground with my hands instead of my back, before using my arms to almost 'jump' as I swung the rest of my body straight, allowing inertia to carry my body clear of the golf swing.

I did get sand in my face, and I dropped everything to get it out. By the time I'd pulled a water bottle from my inventory and poured it in my eyes, Cardin had regained his feet.

Angry at the underhanded tactic, I pulled a small squirt gun out of my inventory.

Cardin stopped, trying to figure out what I was up to.

I pulled the trigger and bright orange liquid arced straight into Cardin's face. Cardin immediately recoiled as the homemade 'pepper spray' began to work it's magic. Aura would limit it's effectiveness, and Cardin _might_ push through the pain regardless, but for now it was unexpected and had made an opening large enough to park 'yo mamma' in

I grabbed nemesis and swept his legs before turning it around in my hands and plunging it towards his chest.

Cardin grabbed Nemesis just behind the head of the spear and pulled it to the side, before wresting it from my grip, wiping his eyes clear with the other hand

I used Leap to get to the far side of the arena

"what's the matter? Scared?" Cardin taunted, getting up once more

"not really, just testing a new idea" I said as I held my arms out to the side

I concentrated on forming my aura, carefully seeing the production of dozens of small spheres of force, but held them in place instead of targeting and releasing them.

By the time I had about six dozen of them and had half my mana, I called my attack.

"Macrosse-" I began, lifting my hands above my head

Cardin paused in his charge, seeing the writhing mass of energy in my hands.

"-Missile-" I continued, dropping my hands in front of me

"-MASSACRE!"

The effect was impressive, as each individually tracking missile fired like some sort of magic machinegun.

Each missile arced gracefully through the air, forming a near wall of the things before shifting towards their target, blanketing Cardin and the area around him with about seventy magic missiles. not that I'd been counting, but judging from my mana bar.

Cardin's aura dropped but not by enough. it was still a good hit, it's just a shame that I was only just figuring out MMM was an area bombardment skill rather than an artillery one.

Time for a little silliness.

I reached into my inventory and pulled out Lisica, currently in her human form, but using a more low-powered version of the transformation, so she resembled a 10-year-old rather than her 13-year-old form.

I set her on the ground and she skipped straight up to Cardin -who was currently wondering what was going on and probably didn't want to hurt the little girl- with a big smile on her face, looking for all the world like a veritable font of innocence and purity.

In less than a second, that happy smile contorted into a malicious grin as she funnelled mana into her arms and punched him square in the family jewels. Every member of the audience -including myself- winced in sympathy.

As Cardin doubled over she grabbed his leg and swung him over her head slamming him into the arena floor, then did it again, slamming him down on the other side, then repeating the process again and again. TvTropes had referred to the technique as "Metronomic Man Mashing", but I tended to get weird looks when I mentioned it in conversation.

Lisica had the exact same strength I did, no matter what her form, and could cast the same spells, making this as easy as casting Mana Muscles. I'd figured it was because she was still part of my soul and not a separate entity like other sorts of Familiar, which probably meant we had the same semblance, which in turn, governed these abilities and statistics.

I pulled a folding chair from my inventory and leaned back in comfort as I watched a "10 year old" kick Cardin's ass, sipping on a glass of ice-cold water... mostly because Goodwitch would have skinned me alive if I cracked open a case of beer.

Old enough to kill, old enough to drink after all.

Eventually we both got bored, so Lisica threw Cardin at my feet. His Aura was damn close to the red by this point, but still not quite there.

The grin on my face could have put the Chesire Cat out of business.

I stood up from my chair and put my foot on Cardin's chest.

"Let's play a game" I said, dropping to a low, sadistic tone and donning a too-wide grin as I channelled my inner Jigsaw.

There was fear in Cardin's eyes.

"It's my very favourite" I continued, pulling my Zweihander from my inventory and resting it on my shoulder, whilst simultaneously stepping off Cardin.

"I call it... Kadoosh" I finished, hefting the giant blade off my shoulder and into an overhead smash directed at Cardin's unprotected knees.

There was an earsplitting crack, and Cardin screamed as both his knees shattered under the sheer force of Kadoosh.

Goodwitch called the match and the medical staff quickly rushed Cardin out of the arena.

However, I wasn't paying attention to that, as my "Chaos" Zweihander had just broken in two, and I could only stare dumbly at the hilt and ricasso in my hand.

"Cobalt?" Ruby asked

I jumped at how close Ruby had gotten without me noticing.

"y-yeah?" I asked

"are you going to be okay?" Ruby asked

"y-yeah, I think so..." I said

I shook myself

"yeah, it was just a simple, one-off sword... I think the fire destroyed the temper... might leave out the dust infusion next time"

I turned to face Ruby

"I'll be fine. If you should worry about anyone, it'd be Cardin. I shattered his knees and all." I said, before turning and walking out the arena

"A waste of humanity's promise, and a danger to everyone" I muttered as I stormed out.

I didn't even check the window stating my prizes

* * *

 **Proudest chapter?**

 **no. I feel like Cardin's fight could've been better... it feels so built up and then... anticlimactic and one-sided, without the awesomeness of One Punch Man to back it up.**

 **but it's wednesday, the deadline is here, and my place is all over the head- I mean... well, you get the picture.**

 **between my Job Network, my new gaming PC being horrible as it finds new and more contrived reasons to not work, playing games old and new, drama involving a bushfire, and just plain lazyness... I'm not proud of this chapter or the next one.**

 **so, dear readers, cheer me up. leave a review, tell me what you think. good? bad? yea? nay?  
maybe you have creative input? let me know if anything particularly awesome occurs to you?**


	14. Unfinished Business

"Do, you know why you were summoned here?" Ozpin asked

"I broke someone's legs in a routine duel?" I guessed

"close... that is part of it, but not the whole reason" Ozpin replied

I thought, humming a few hmm's and err's as I went.

It hadn't taken long for Ozpin to summon me to his office, and I had barely cooled off.

"this can't be about the pepper spray, that was last week. Discovering new techniques... you could've pulled me in any time last week to give me a pat on the back and a cautionary tale, so it's not likely, even with the missile massacre... I got nothing, sorry"

Ozpin made a hand gesture and the door opened behind me, revealing professors Oobleck and Port.

I furrowed my brows "you're not about to chew me out for missing a terms worth of lessons that I didn't realize I had to attend are you?" I asked

"no, nothing quite so mundane as that" Ozpin said

"Cobalt, you are about to officially be recruited as an apprentice!" Oobleck announced

I blinked. Gaped slightly at the declaration... then audibly slapped my forehead with a curse

"Dammnit, and Port even mentioned this yesterday, and it still slipped by me!" I exclaimed.

Ozpin had the barest trace of a smile on his face

"Yes, now that you have shown all of us exactly what you're capable of, on many occasions, Ozpin has decided that now is the time to decide who should be your official teacher in the next four years." Port said, as jovial as ever.

"And you're both contesting my apprenticeship... You want me to choose" I guessed

"Correct" Oobleck replied

"Let's see... the History teacher and the Grimm Studies teacher..." I said, thinking aloud

Port's no doubt a brilliant combatant, if level 128 and regularly capturing grimm to release on questionably-fortunate students is anything to go by. He could tell me a lot if I wanted to kill grimm quicker... Meanwhile, Oobleck's the History teacher, and despite the greatest efforts of the RoosterTeeth team, I'm still in the dark on so much of it. Actually knowing the Faunus war, for example, will help with maintaining the Charade for that much longer, not to mention the fact that Oobleck's right there in the middle of it in Volume 2. If I'm going to consider the future, I'm going to have to take Cinder into account for those plans, and given that by the time Volume 2 rolls around I doubt anyone short of Cinder's direct subordinates would be able to handle me... really, the choice is a no brainer.

"After _somewhat_ careful consideration, I believe Oobleck would be the better option here. Sorry Port, but I'd happily go hunting with you sometime in the near future." I said

"Right, well then, you have until next week to get yourself and your familiar ready for classes." Oobleck said

"Just a heads up, do you know about Lisica's latest development?" I asked

"Which one would that be?"

Lisica extracted herself from my inventory before assuming 'human' form

"That one"

I heard Ozpin choke on his coffee, and Oobleck and Port weren't faring much better

"Greetings sirs, it's a pleasure to meet you" Lisca said with a bow, the picture of politeness

Meanwhile, I was barely restraining my cackling. You just couldn't get good schadenfreude like this.

"I'll take that as a no then..." I said

"When did this happen?" Oobleck asked

"Technically, Port saw that particular moment when Lisica got her third tail, when we hit level 20, but she's only been using the ability since this morning"

"what?" Oobleck asked

I sighed, "this one's going to get a bit 'meta' here, but here goes nothing. Ancient folklore where I'm from ascribes mystical abilities to foxes, including..."

* * *

"...and it's taken Lisica about twice as long as it should have, but now she can put all those human experiences she got from me to good use." I finished.

"I must say, this is quite the development" Ozpin said

"as did I when I figured out that Lisica wasn't an ordinary fox... though when I said that, there were different words and a few curses involved" I joked

"ah yes, I believe I have that particular incident on record." Ozpin added

"I wish I could be surprised at that... anywho, just thought I'd keep you abreast of the big events... if we're done here, I need to pick a few things up and all." I said

"of course, you are dismissed" Ozpin said

* * *

 **Later, In Vale**

* * *

My hands were numb with recoil, my ears rang, and yet, despite this, I couldn't stop the giggling.

I reached with my finger for the appropriate catch and dropped the spent magazine and cycled the action a few times to clear any left-over ammo, leaving the gun in my hands empty. For safety reasons of course.

"are you sure you're alright?" The Quartermaster asked me

"never better, why?" I replied in between bouts of giggling

"I've never seen a gun that small do _that_ to a target" the Quartermaster exclaimed, indicating the rough bit of ballistic foam on a wooden stand that was surrounded with a shredded steel chestplate that was had more holes than a donut factory and chunks of the same dense ballistic foam.

I grabbed a training dummy and set about replacing the old one "that's because I'm using that special ammo" I said, dragging the wooden stand behind me.

I grabbed my freshly minted gun and slammed a new magazine in.

I decided to adopt a different stance, holding it straight out to my side, firing it like I had something in my right hand.

I squeezed the trigger and the gun in my hands roared and kicked, a line of gunsmoke traced the path between me and the target, and two holes had appeared in the 10mm steel plate, followed shortly by a soft thump as the arms of the high-density, ballistic foam dummy dropped to the ground amid a small hail of foam giblets.

I couldn't keep myself from giggling at the sheer, balls-out amount of batshit crazy firepower I had.

"the rocket rounds propel themselves after leaving the barrel, punch through enemy armour, where they then explode inside the soft, squishy parts of the enemy. I'm sure you noticed that, you built the damn things." I said, flicking small lever near my thumb and holding the trigger down

I emptied the magazine in three seconds, but in those three seconds the dummy came to resemble it's predecessor, the rounds shredding the soft foam and riddling the 'protective' breastplate with so many holes it was hard to tell where one ended and another began

Mostly by virtue of them being _really_ big holes. I'd sprayed like a goddamn scrub, and there were as many large dents and scorch marks in the reinforced concrete back wall of the range as there were in the target

I dropped the black magazine and slammed a grey, metal-coloured magazine with a red stripe into the waiting reciever.

This one was filled with proper 12-gauge shells and I unleashed the full fury of those on what was left of the target, mostly denting the metal and ruining what was left of the foam. The spread was pretty terrible since the gun didn't have a choke, but it wasn't supposed to be a long-range weapon, ever.

I put the gun down and waited for the giggling to subside

"I'll take 10 magazines of the buckshot in addition to the ten in the new ammo" I said, quickly doing some mental arithmetic and pulling out an appropriate sum of cash.

"of... of course. Just give me a few minutes to put those together." The Quartermaster replied

"whilst you're at that, mind if I use your forge?" I asked "I can pay."

* * *

It felt... good, to finally be paying for my materials, like I wasn't just sitting around mooching off others.

That, and the physical exertion had my blood singing a song of iron and fire in my veins... not literally, but I was that damn enthusiastic about blacksmithing. I always did like working with my hands.

I shaped the billets, welded the core into it's jacket, then hammered, ground, scraped and dressed the resulting sword blank. the result of all this work was a Tanto with a small addition that would allow it to fit into the socket on Nemesis.

Retrieving Nemesis from my inventory, I put this latest and greatest of knives atop it's rightful spot in the socket.

A deft swing later to test the balance, and Nemesis was finally complete.

I then retrieved a MIG welder and welded the socket shut turning the handle and the socket into one solid lump of metal. Whilst the plan had originally been to be able to pull the whole thing apart into multiple, usable weapons, I'd since realized that the sword I wanted was simply way too long, and that I should just settle with this little tanto blade.

I cleaned the weld up and heat-treated the whole thing.

I sat back and beheld my creation in it's final form... before deciding that the leaf-blade was too big, and that it needed to go.

A quick trip to the band-saw saw to that. In it's place I welded on a small solid bit of metal stock, ever so slightly wider than the shaft, that was then quickly hammered into a small point and counterweight for the main blade.

Another test of the balance found the resulting creation superbly balanced and weighted for close combat.

I had been planning this moment since I created 'Cobalt', all that time ago on Earth.

"with your completion, I hereby christen you... Astartes!" I declared, slamming Astarte's butt-spike into the ground by my side, taking care to avoid stabbing my toes.

"Feel no pain, Fear no Evil!" I proclaimed

I heard clapping and spun around to find Ruby and the Quartermaster

I immediately ducked my head, mortified at having been caught 'out-of-character'

"you guys didn't see that, okay" I said

They both made a zipping motion across their lips, though they were both smiling from ear to ear.

I quickly grabbed the ammo and beat feet, stopping only to pay at the register before heading back out into Vale.

* * *

"Cobalt- wait, Cobalt Wait up!" Ruby shouted as she tried to catch up with me

I stopped and waited for ruby to do just that

"what did you need?" I asked

"I just wanted to ask some questions"

"like?"

"well, I never saw you use that missile massacre thing before"

"I just... y'know came up with it. It's not really a skill in and of itself, but an application of Energy Bolt, since I don't have to immediately fire them, I can just charge, like, a million of them, and bombard everything in a big area... good agaisnt mobs and blobs where you don't really have to aim, but against singular enemies, there's better options." I explained

"like?" Ruby asked

"well, your sniper rifle's a pretty good example of something I'd use to take out hardened and singular enemies... was thinking of building a Gauss Gun to kind of emulate it actually" I replied

"A what?"

"a gun that uses magnets to make already fast projectiles even faster." I answered

"another gun?!"

"a secondary, to threaten single targets at long range. I've most other bases covered actually... though that's not going to stop me manufacturing new tools and toys every now and then... after all, everyone needs a hobby." I replied "there might be a sidearm and a sword coming soon... and possibly a Buckler of some sort. Really it's whatever takes my fancy and offers new playstyles... I still haven't even mentioned the Holy grail of firepower either"

Ruby looked like she was about to protest

"how about I say you can have full access to the armoury once It's up and running?" I suggested, cutting her off

Ruby's protest died on her lips and was replaced with internal conflict

"whatever, now Lisica's decided to play hide and seek, and all I've got is that she's somewhere in this park. I hate to ask, but my familiar's being difficult again."

Ruby sighed in exasperation

"here foxy, foxy, foxy"

* * *

 **Wassup. it's not Midnight here in the +9:30 timezone, so I'm still on time!**

 **so, I still had some things to clean up after Chapter 13, hence why this chapter's so calm, and not full of fiery Grimm-death.**

 **I would love to thank you for reviewing, as people have pointed out several angles on the Cardin fight I literally hadn't considered, such as Cardin being generally outmatched in most ways by his fellow students, who Cobalt would give a run for their money, and the stated objective of embarassing the fuck out of Cardin, rather than a climactic fight.**

 **Coco Gatling Gun: as great as your review is, especially in pointing out the things I haven't explained or displayed properly, the fact that you're Guest Reviewing means I'm forced to use space here to respond to your mammoth review.** **"Sloshing the Wine" refers to how the stances and motions in Zui Quan, or the Drunken Fist, are performed and were developed according to Wikipedia. The concept is to think of your body as being hollow, like a gourd, and that the pit of your stomach is filled with 'wine', and by emulating this 'bottom balance' and shifting or 'sloshing' the 'wine' out into your arms and legs you can reinforce and add momentum to your palm strikes. It's a mental construct guiding the motions of one's body.** **I'm info dumping here because I couldn't find some way to wedge it in without a big fangasm or it seeming artificial or truncated... after all, I'm trying to cut down on "Cobalt Jinn: Pointless Exposition Grand Master."** **I hope this chapter answers some of your questions, particularly the one about Macrosse Missile Massacre. Lastly, thanks for the ideas, some I'm already planning on implementing.**

 **I would also like to request amnesty in terms of my spelling an punctuation. there's only so much these last-minute reviews can catch and my Beta-Reader's dropped off the map again... that said, I've got a new one waiting in the wings. I'm just waiting to see his work.**


	15. Totally-Not-a-Date

"So..."

I desperately searched for some conversation topic that wasn't dry and/or cliché.

Well, I suppose it is an attempt to get to know her

"did you do anything interesting recently?" I asked

Velvet looked about as awkward and unsure as I was.

we'd both gone to a nice café for lunch, and had promptly sat there, being awkwardly silent together once we'd ordered our food

I had Lisica on patrol just in case any sitcom shenanigans were in the works. I wouldn't put it past Yang or Coco to drop in and turn this into on of those really annoying comedy routines, and that shit always annoyed the fuck out of me.

There was one fellow with a trenchcoat and a newspaper on the far side of the café towards the back and out of the good light. I'd managed to catch a glimpse of his face courtesy of an 'inquisitve faunus kid' asking him for the time and I didn't recognize the features.

But back to the present. This not-date was important stuff after all.

"I've been working on a new weapon for the past few weeks" Velvet offered

"oh? Any details?" I asked

"...I've kinda been saving it for when I really need it." Velvet replied

"ah, I can understand." I said

Darn. It was a bit of a long shot, but being the first fan to figure out what was in the box, straight from the horse's mouth no less, would've been bragging rights for the next decade.

"I think I remember hearing someone mention that you're something of a caster... Does it have anything to do with that?"

"I'm sorry? A what?"

"a... oh hell, here we go." I said, pinching the bridge of my nose "A Spellcaster... y'know, wizards, witches and warlocks... that kind of thing. People who focus on casting spells in combat"

"well... they wouldn't be wrong. I haven't heard of it put like that before though" Velvet said

"well... it's a gaming term. I play... well, used to play, a _lot_ of videogames, and the terminology kinda just slips in after a bit." I said

"I know the feeling"

"anywho, on my end of things, I've been fooling around a bunch with my own weapon... completely redesigned it... now I sit and pray that my Semblance doesn't decide to be all picky all of a sudden"

"what is your semblance, actually?" Velvet asked

"me? I- you want the honest answer? It's called Gamer, or _The_ Gamer... it's kinda difficult to explain the whole thing, since it does a lot of things... uh, you ever play many videogames?" I said

"no, not really" Velvet answered

I sighed

"I was afraid of that. Suffice to say, my semblance works like I'm in a videogame, which means a whole gamut of odd things..."

* * *

"...so, yeah... my life has gotten all kinds of weird the past few months"

"that's a lot to take in... and it would explain so much..." Velvet said

"well, it is what it is. I can't say I'm completely unhappy with how I turned out in the superpower lottery" I said

"You certainly seem rather... upbeat about all this" Velvet noted

"I've had three and a bit months to get used to it... and I'm sitting here, a prospective hunter -every little kids dream job- trying to decide if I should ask the pretty girl across from me out for a proper date"

"you think I'm pretty?"

That shut me up.

I ended up gaping like a fish for a few moments before finally managing to say "yes" before I died of embarrassment. Lisica, however, was dying of laughter across the road outside the café

Did the room suddenly get a few degrees warmer?

No, that was just me blushing. Great.

"even with-"

"e-especially with those" I stammered, cutting Velvet off.

"...which makes it sound like it's because you're a faunus" I said "but that's not it either, I'm just..."

I realized I was motormouthing and stopped to take a breath, and cut to the crux of the matter

"ah crap, I'm making a mess out of all this... I really like you, okay, I've just... I've had a good friendship turn sour because we were on opposite sides of a rather polarizing issue, and... well, the fallout was... spectacular. I'm not good with feelings stuff... like, at all; and I wanted to not throw us both under a bus like that because we were totally incompatible..."

Velvet was speechless before my outburst

"ah, crap, sorry for dumping that load of emotional baggage on you like that... and on the first date too, man I'm doing a number on this... sorry" I said, in the process of mentally performing a round of 'Bad Dobby'

"Lisica mentioned this. Before, when you had me look after her... which is why I wasn't mad at you earlier" Velvet said "you mean well..."

"...it's just good people don't always end up doing well" I finished.

"Lisica mentioned that as well" Velvet said

I chuckled. "I'm not sure if that fox is a curse or a blessing in disguise... probably a bit of both." I mused

There was another silence between us.

"aanywho... uh, so what do you do in your spare time?" I asked, pulling our minds elsewhere "I used to read, write and play videogames, but tend to find myself in the forge more often than not nowadays… and I still read, just a lot less now"

"oh- um, I mostly read as well."

"oh? What sorts of books?"

"I mostly study aura techniques... they're nothing compared to what you can do, though"

"that? Oh, well, Energy bolt's... well, basic, not to put all your hard effort to shame, but... honestly? it's a basic attack spell, it's literally just gathering and projecting aura... I'm sure you know a healing spell or something that takes what I can do and blows it out the water" I said

"well, I actually do know a-"

"see... wait- really? Because that is, like, super useful" I said

"well, I'm not very good with it." Velvet said

I paused for a bit. Healing spells, no matter how weak initially, are invaluable. Having a source of healing outside items would allow me to stay in the field almost indefinitely.

I had a theory, and quickly formed a plan to test it.

"I think me and my semblance might be able to help out" I said

"what do you mean?"

" **Party Create: Team Cobalt. Party Invite: Velvet Scarlatina** "

Velvet looked confused

"you didn't mention illusions" Velvet said

"try 'I have functions that share my semblance with others', in addition to 'rapid mastery of new skills'. Just press the button and we'll take 'er for a spin... the illusion's tangible"

Velvet tentatively reached up and pressed the button, and eep'ed I a manner I couldn't help but call 'cute' when it disappeared, likely replaced with the HUD.

"so, what do you say, we practice that healing spell?" I asked

The waitress chose that moment to deliver our food, at long last.

"...after the food, then we practice that spell."

* * *

 **Later, in a non-descript park in Vale**

* * *

"so... first thing's first" I said

"what's that?" Velvet asked

Lisica Falcon Pawnched me into a nearby tree so hard the bark on the other side came off like a "George of the Jungle" gag.

Velvet just stared at the space I had previously occupied, switching occasionally to Lisica who merely grinned viciously, rolled her shoulders and shook out her hand before reverting to fox form and scampering off, which seemed to break the trance Velvet was in.

Velvet was upon me in an instant, checking for injuries.

"are you okay?"

I just sat there, doing an 'impression' of Loki after his meeting with the Hulk... heh, Impression, Yang would kill me for stealing her thunder like that.

That punch was staggeringly powerful, and if I didn't have Aura and Gamer's Body, I'd be making a lot more noise right now (mostly screaming).

Not only had the punch drained a tremendous chunk of my aura, but the impact with the tree had taken off the rest of my aura and dropped my hp by a fifth... note to self: do not piss off Lisica... And steer clear of nega-cobalt if/when he appears

"Careful, can you tell me where it hurts?" Velvet asked

I started to reply, but had to cut myself off and painfully extract myself from the tree, which caused it to fall over... and without support, I happened to collapse as well.

"my health's down 100 points... mana's completely gone... man, health damage sucks." I said, coughing for effect

"what are you talking about?"

"Gamer's Body: Injuries don't cause wounds, but deplete my health gauge... Y'know, hit points and all." I explained

"your semblance seems oddly convenient"

"story of the past three months" I drawled

"keep still, I'll see I can stabilize you"

I saw Velvet's hands glow slightly, and felt a foreign aura push into my body. Instead of the brown I was expecting, the aura was a bright white

Velvet stopped when she noticed, and tried again

"is something wrong?" I asked

"My aura's acting strangely." Velvet mentioned

I thought for a few moments "how does the technique work?" I asked

"it's supposed to used stripped-down aura to seal wounds... I couldn't quite get the aura pure enough"

"is the aura a different colour?"

"well, yes, how did you guess"

"lucky guess" I said "I _think_ it's Gamer interfering... just, try and memorize how you're doing this and it'll improve on your technique when I can't help you... now, would you mind showing me so I can fix myself up when you can't help me?"

* * *

"so after she showed me lay on hands, we talked for a bit more, walked around vale, that sort of thing... there might've been some icecreams in there somewhere as well" I said

"right, then what happened" Coco asked

"I... well, _somehow_ I managed to convince her to go on a proper date-date... I'm still figuring out what I said" I recounted "Velvet asked me."

"really?"

"yes. I've already been made to feel properly emasculated right now, so if we could skip the relentless mocking, that'd be great. I've already sworn I won't hurt Velvet. I wouldn't dream of it in a million years." I said "at this point I'd sooner shoot myself"

"so long as you make good on that promise, we won't have an issue."

"on my honour... well, what I have of honour"

"what's that supposed to mean?"

"I fight dirty, s'all"

* * *

"Now then, Cobalt. Once more, this time with feeling!" Oobleck shouted from across the gym.

I hefted Astartes again and charged forward, before planting the end in the ground and vaulting at a training android, planting both feet on its chest.

I swept Astartes to the right ankle-tapping another one in the split-second I had before it reacted and continued the sweep into the face of another android on my left whilst simultaneously ducking under it's sword.

I leapt above the others, performing a backflip before landing behind the rest of the grouped-up mob I'd been fighting.

Oobleck had made me try and develop a proper weapon style out of my unarmed styles for the past hour or two, always sending more training bots at me whenever I trashed them. They gave negligible xp though, given I was two-and-a-half times their measly level 10.

I was getting close to finishing though, I could feel it in my bones, and the anticipation was killing me...

The bots all turned and faced me, and I ducked into a low crouch and waited.

The first one that approached me had its legs swept out from under it as I kicked at it in an explosive burst of motion, and I performed an exaggerated overhead stab using the momentum from the kick, simultaneously kicking the next-nearest android in the chest.

I jumped my boy over astartes an slammed my ankles on either side of an android's torso, before bringing it and my legs back over the spear and into the ground, crushing the robot's head, and leaping as soon as my feet touched solid ground.

I was eminently glad for Dangersense as I fought, as I doubt I'd have been nearly as good at this as I was. The acrobatics were courtesy of Capoeira and the close attention to momentum came primarily from Zui Quan.

As I landed, it occurred to me that I was almost dancing... a dance of death, if you will...

 _ **New Class Unlocked: Harlequin**_  
 _ **War is a theatre, the battlefield a stage, an the soldiers upon it performers dancing to the tune of merciless fate. Harlequins see little difference between the ballroom and the battlefield and strive to be the greatest performers on the stage.**_

 _ **New Skill Unlocked: Dance of Death**_  
 _ **a set of katas and motions that have been accentuated and exaggerated until they became difficult to tell from dancing. Performers are well-known for being nigh-impossible to hit in combat and for the entrancing movements of this art.**_

Immediately my mind was filled with an entire fighting style. Every pose, motion and technique was laid bare before me.

"...y'know, I never really enjoyed jester and harlequin characters. Always tricky to use or too random. this... this I can get behind... attack of the Ninja-Clown-Assassin is a sentence I will never take seriously though."

"have you found something?!" Oobleck asked

Lisia appeared from my inventory in full human form, brandishing a pair of daggers. After all, few dances are ever danced solo, and indeed, this style gained huge amounts of power if the performer had a dance partner they could maintain a synchronicity with.

"Your enemies should tremble with fear, for a harlequin of the laughing god dances at your side" I quoted

We were off in a flash, Lisica and I dancing in tandem, blades flashing in and out as we twisted and contorted our way between attacks and enemies. we set up kills for one another, sweeping the legs for a decapitation, removing the arms for an impalement, if we didn't kill the opponent outright.

Our performance ended, as they should, with a bow to our captive audience.

"my word" Oobleck said, for once, speechless.

"that was... quite the rush, eh Lisica" I said, panting from exertion.

"you can say that again" Lisica replied

It may cost stamina to use, but man oh man was that worth the price of admission.

* * *

 **Nearly forgot it was Wednesday today. crap. I need to get off my arse and write out chapter 16, or risk falling behind.**

 **Well... I have exactly zero experience dating... with the dialogue I was going for "adorably awkward together", and it kinda got sidetracked. That said, Cobalt's now got some much needed skills together, we've all had a bit of a laugh at Cobalt, and phase one of a lot of plans is starting to come together.**

 **Coming up next: We resume the RWBY story.**

 **Edit: I'm still waiting on some sign from my Proofreaders. I would like to take a moment to remind them that the update schedule is weekly and that it happens with or without their input.**


	16. Revelations

I watched Oobleck from the back of the classroom giving another of his infamous lectures. I couldn't blame him, this coffee was good...

He must lace it with some sort of narcotic, because I swear I'm seeing things in slo-mo with every sip and...

" **Observe** "

I quickly skimmed the resulting window.

...figures, the coffee provides a bonus to Dex and reflex saves. No drugs, just good ol' caffeine.

...I should also make sure to grind Observe up.

I sat there, only half listening (that half being Lisica), when, for some reason, my mind shifted to the game, and how to 'beat' it.

 _Obviously I need to survive whatever Cinder's got coming, and I saw the show, I know a lot of what's coming. All the important bits anyway._

 _Cinder is coming at the end of the semester... that's... what, another few weeks?_

 _Let's see... the train... infiltration... that thing on prom night, I'm gonna have to throw a wrench in there..._

 _Cinder's got, in Torchwick's words, enough weapons and dust to arm an army, likely the white fang, and she's got a virus, more than likely a worm program, in the CCT... what was it...wait, what about Atlas how do they fit- Oh shit, the Mechs._

 _So, White Fang and Mechs on every street corner, Vale's at it's knees... what's Cinder's endgoal? Destruction? Conquest? Either way, Vale's gonna burn, and with the Grimm, that's a potential death knell for civilisation._

 _Damn, and Season 3 should be coming out back on Earth too and-what was that?_

I glanced around the room as I felt a distinct presence leave the general area. A few other heads but went back to work, brushing it off as their imagination... except Weiss, who stared daggers at me.

I was the gamer... and a hunter. I was genre savvy enough to know not to let this particular lion lie.

 _Fuck. Not good... what was that? Archon? Daemon? Elder/Dark God?_

 _Crap, no use worrying about it now... I'll just hurt myself._

* * *

"so, where were we?" I asked

"we were talking about how Lisica doesn't seem to talk much" Blake said, screwing the tap into the tree

"oh, right, that. Well, since Lisica and I are still on much the same wavelengths, and there's that instantaneous mental communication, I've actually been doing a bunch of talking for her... and she doesn't need to talk to me, I know what she wants to communicate the second she thinks it, without the need for such clumsy things as words." I explained

"you've been talking for her?"

"it's part of why I never shut up" I said, retrieving a jar "the other part's all me."

"well, that explains a few things" Blake deadpanned

"We can stop it and Lisica can make more of an effort to communicate verbally" I offered

"if you could"

"right-o... oh, by the way, the next thing in the sequence of event's I'm aware of is you and Weiss having your big fallout... time's running out. Remember, I'm not gonna judge, and neither will they" I said

Blake's reply was interrupted by a loud Roaring from the direction of CRDL.

"that's probably the goon squad kicking a hornet's nest. I'll see about saving them. Goodwitch made me reset Cardin's knees, and I'll be damned if I'm not the one to re-break them" I said

"Goodwitch made you do that?"

"yes, and I made damn sure to ensure he understood that I was going to re-break his legs if he didn't start playing nice... how his chaotic evil ass got into Beacon, I will never know." I said, making for the sounds of fighting

* * *

"Ursa!" Sky shouted as he ran past teams RWBY and JNPR.

"Incoming!"

Sky stopped in his tracks as a giant Ursa landed in front of him headfirst with an almighty crack as it's neck didn't so much break as shatter.

A figure clad in a distinctive blue soon crawled out from under the corpse

"Leap, plus Suplex, equals I win!" Cobalt declared to the world "that was a great idea Lisica, we're gonna have to experiment with Leap some more"

Said faunus quickly landed next to him, having leapt from a nearby tree, grinning from ear to ear.

Goodwitch followed not long after

"it's alright, we took care of it. Gave him a big _bear_ hug and jumped" Cobalt said, before bursting into fits of giggling.

Sky seriously wondered if Cobalt was at all sane... and what sort of person can perform a flying suplex on an Ursa Major.

"let's se- oh fuck yeah, Level up! Liz, methinks we might have to go grinding in the woods later" Cobalt said before casting a glance downwards

"oh sweet! Loot!" Cobalt said reaching into the Grimms corpse and pulling out a wad of what looked to be Lien cards and an old 'rolled parchment' style scroll.

"how the fuck do I read this? This cursive's nearly indecipherable! What is this, Arabic? Elvish? What the fuck is this scroll supposed to- oh I see, you just- well, I'm gonna be saving this then." Cobalt said, before making the scroll disappear in a mote of aura.

Sky was speechless. He was definitely going to try and talk Cardin out of this one.

* * *

"you called me here Blake?"

"yes, I've decided to tell them"

"then I'm with you. I've got your back on this." I said, following Blake into the team RWBY dorm.

It looked much as I remembered it... that is, not really all that well. I was groggy, tired, and couldn't see in the darkness.

But I mentally painted the scene of my arrival on there anyway, posing the characters like dolls.

"guys" Blake said, catching everyone's attention

"Blake? What's up" Yang asked

"I've got something to tell you... something I've been trying to keep a secret" Blake said

"what kind of secret?" Ruby asked from on her bunk.

"a big one" I said, making my presence known

"why is he here?!" Weiss demanded

"because I'm the reason this conversation is happening in the first place. I happened to 'guess' Blake's little secret" I said, with finger quotes "she didn't like that, and I offered to tell a bunch of my own secrets, such as my actual origin story, to save my own hide from getting tanned... with the proviso that Blake 'let the cat out the bag' first, so to speak"

Blake facepalmed

"sorry, but that Yang-tastic line had to be used at least once, and damned if I'm going to let Barbara Pun-kelman hog all the glory" I apologized, not actually sorry for the pun.

"I'm sorry, what?" Yang asked

"that ties into my little revelation. But first: Blake... it's like a bandaid, rip it off quickly and get it over with."

"right" Blake said, nodding, taking a few breaths to steel herself, before reaching up and undoing her bow.

"I'm a faunus" Blake said

"is that all?" Yang asked

"I have to say that when this was explained to me, I was honestly kinda surprised that Blake was a catgirl... and that everyone had picked up on it long beforehand... like, what? What bow twitch?" I admitted

There was a moment of silent shock as what I said sunk in

"okay, who the hell told you that?" Blake demanded

"why, you did... or rather, a different version of you. In the middle of an argument with Weiss over... well it was two points, Weiss was arguing that the White Fang was a horrid terrorist group, and you were arguing that not all Faunus were bad... both of you were correct" I said

"you better start making some sense, because that never happened!" Blake said

"that's because I'm here, using foreknowledge to butterfly effect it out, and force it to not happen. If I hadn't intervened, Weiss would've taken you to the docks where the local Journey to the West reference would've shown up, having stowed away on a boat. Weiss would've thrown around some racist slurs because he' a faunus breaking the law, you would've taken offense, and the argument would've devolved into a shouting match that would've ended with you accidentally revealing more of your past than you would've like to; then running and hiding for three days in Vale, until a White Fang raid on a Schnee dust shipment at the docks kinda brings team RWBY back together, the whole fiasco ending with Weiss declaring that she doesn't care." I summarized for Blake

"hold up, how could you possibly know all of that? And what's this about White Fang stealing dust shipments?" Weiss demanded

I sighed

"sorry about that, I got ahead of myself. Hello, I'm Cobalt Jinn, a totally made up name I've exchanged for my real one. I hail from a large island-country on a little blue-green Planet called Earth… or Terra if you want a name that's not immediately recognizable as 'dirt'. We called it that because when the Earth beneath our feet was discovered to be a massive spherical planet, we just stretched the term to encompass the planet we were standing on as much as the ground under our feet... but I digress.

Have you ever read a story and thought to yourself "I desperately want to go there and be awesome"? Because, for me, that's exactly what happened when the company, Metasoft, shanghaied me into their Closed beta for the game system that now runs my life.

When on Earth, I used to watch a 3D Western Animation called RWBY, spelt with a W instead of a U, so-named for the titular team of four young heroines working as huntresses, and follows them in their action-packed adventures as young huntresses-in-training in the Science Fantasy world of Remnant. The only reason I haven't asked stupid questions like "what country am I in?", "is dust like that stuff on the top shelf?", "what's a Faunus?" or "what are Grimm?" is because that's made abundantly clear in the series.

Before you ask Earth is a world with several things different. First, no Faunus. Humans are the only sentient lifeforms on the planet. Second: no Dust. Humans figured out things like Fossil Fuels such as Coal and crude Oil, Photovolataic cells to produce energy from sunlight, and even split the atom to harness the ridiculously dangerous energy released... but most importantly, the current population of about... seven billion souls is only possible because there aren't any Grimm either." I explained

"you know, you nearly had me, nearly." Yang said "but there's no way any of that's even remotely possible."

"oh really?"

"You might be full of surprises, but I know for sure that you're not some alien from another world" Yang rebuked

"um... Yang... I didn't say anything" I said, head swivelling, looking for the source of the voice.

"then who did?" Yang asked

Aurum materialized in the room and said "I did"

"oh, Hi Aurum. Long time no see- JUMPING JESUS H. CHRIST ON A POGO STICK! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING HERE AURUM?!" I swore

"jeez, no need to shout" Aurum said, visibly wincing for all that she had no facial features to wince with.

The door exploded inwards revealing Nora with Magnhild in her hands and JNPR at her back... who quickly balked at the person made out of liquid gold just kinda floating in the middle of the now kinda-cramped dormitory, whatever she was about to say quickly dying on her tongue.

"you know this thing?" Weiss demanded

I was about to reply but was interrupted again with a cry of "Mum!"

All heads turned to look at the golden fox who had, up until that point, been sitting in the corner on the edge of everyone's thoughts, now in Human form... and then to me at the obvious implications

"don't tell me you-" Weiss said

"no." I said, somewhat forcefully.

"but she just-"

"The Familiar spell requires a small part of the casters soul" Aurum explained "but Cobalt here didn't have enough soul to produce a familiar. Both of them would have died in short order had I not stepped in and bolstered Cobalt's soul with my own power. I am Aurum, an Archon that works as Cobalt's caseworker with Metasoft... and I couldn't help but notice that Cobalt went and spilled the beans"

"Aurum... doesn't that mean gold in old Mistrali?" Weiss asked

"Yes... though Cobalt here would call it Pig Latin" Aurum stated

"why are you here? Last time I saw you, I was about to accidentally kill myself" I asked

"Officially, I'm here to make an announcement. As a Closed-Beta tester helping us with the bug-hunt back at HQ, you've been given an Early-Access Season pass. This is so we can debug the DLC before release and as a thank you from the team." Aurum said

"DLC?" I asked

"yes. The Mentors and Acolytes DLC. Some recent developments with the source material inspired some additions to your skill features." Aurum said "But I'm really here to throw you a bone or two"

"Gamer updated? Man, now I really wish I had an internet cnnection... what was that other thign you had?" I asked

"just read these scrolls and the changes should take effect" Aurum replied.

I opened them and found that, save for a generic magic circle, the scrolls were blank. They didn't even register as skill books. I glanced at Aurum when they initially didn't do anything.

Then the scrolls began to fragment into golden light and swirl around me, regardless of being a skillbook or not. I felt something change within me, something fundamental, something at my core. It was almost like the magic was being scribed into my soul, drawing my attention to the vast amounts of overlapping magic just like it already there... I realized this was a new addition to the system.

My vision went black, and my vision was dominated by a progress meter

 _ **Installing Expansion... 20%**_

 _ **Installing Expansion... 58%**_

 _ **Installing Expansion... 84%**_

 _ **Installing Expansion...100%**_

I blinked as my vision returned, and saw several worried faces

The inevitable conversation was interrupted by the sound of music... I realized that my it was my ringtone.

But not the one for my scroll.

The one for my old, Earth-made Nokia Smartphone.

I sent a questioning glance at Aurum before checking who could possibly be calling me.

I blinked in disbelief for a brief moment, and answered the call faster than I had ever done.

"h-hello?" The other person asked. A voice I thought I'd never hear again.

"Mum... is that really you Mum?!"

* * *

 **And Cliffhanger.**

 **Aurum's a nice person, and she's somewhat taken pity on Cobalt, so she's bending the rules to breaking point, under pretenses like "making sure they don't lynch Cobalt" and "letting him talk to his family, because kidnapping him like that was a bit unfair"...**

 **It's basically just a mobile internet connection. Nothing fancy, just yet, and it only works because Cobalt synched with it earlier, and costs him about 100 mana per minute to make a phone call, at present giving him 6 minutes of continuous phone use... to call his friends and family with, and explain where he suddenly disappeared to three months ago.**

 **This is also so that Cobalt can catch up on both series, as when he left, Volume 2 was the latest thing out, and the original Gamer Manhwa has also produced a few interesting developments in that time, which has lead to the DLC Aurum installed.**

 **Thus begins the first part of a three-day upload, chapter 17 tomorrow on christmas eve, then the Christmas special on Christmas day**.


	17. Reading into the Future

_**Before we begin, there is an important notice for you: after five chapters without a single peep, the current Beta-Readers are hereby considered AWOL, or at least unable to keep up with the weekly schedule.**_

 _ **Therefore, the position is now open and available. If you've been noticing my trash capitalization, and actually have free time at least once a week before the wednesday updates to go over my work, you're welcome to have a look and try correcting shit. Apply via PM.**_

 **Unfortunately, due to the real-life people involved with the reunion, we're not able to give you the reunion writ verbatim. The Author wishes to express his deepest condolences for this, and hopes that you can forgive him.**

Once Cobalt had caught up with his family, having unveiled shock after shock to both parties, his familiar, magic, and location to his family, and just how different Earth and Terrans were to Remnant and it's inhabitants. Cobalt's Youngest brother had checked, and then revealed, that Volume 3 of RWBY was coming out. When Cobalt had been kidnapped, Volume 2 was the latest thing out, and he had to know what was going on if he was going to defuse Cinder.

The next day, in the dead of night, Cobalt found himself in an empty classroom trying to hook his phone into his scroll and his scroll into a projector. For the sake of maintaining the integrity of the timeline, he'd made sure that he and Lisica would be alone when they caught up

* * *

Glynda grumbled as she made her way to one of the classrooms with a frustratingly smug Ozpin at her side, ready to throw the book at Cobalt (then the library, brick by brick) for this one... she might actually take him to the library to pummel him as well.

Whatever he was doing down here after curfew couldn't possibly be more important than School Rules.

She "subtly" opened the door (read: almost kicked it down with a telekinetic blast) and stormed in.

"what do you think you're doing out at... this... hour..." She demanded before seeing what Cobalt was projecting against one of the classroom walls.

On it was a strange likeness of her. Clearly it was a computer-generated animation, and judging by the lip-sync, it was performed by an amateur hand.

"I would give you a pat on the back... and a slap on the wrist!" The other her said with a pitch perfect replica of her voice before Cobalt fumbled around with a device near the projector and paused the video

"greetings to the wonderful Wizard of Oz and the lovely Glynda, Good Witch of the North! Welcome to the midnight showing of RWBY the anime, come, sit down, glimpse a small part of the future... our one rule is that no part of this leaves this room." Cobalt said, grin a mile wide

Goodwitch was in the middle of formulating a reply when Ozpin simply smiled mysteriously and said "we'd be delighted"

Goodwitch was about to complain, but was interrupted by Cobalt's infernal familiar pushing past with the largest bucket of popcorn she'd ever seen. It was so large, in fact, that Lisica was carrying it balanced on her head.

By the time she'd recovered her balance, Ozpin had already taken a seat and a large handful of popcorn.

"You're in luck, the show's just starting." Cobalt added "The only thing you missed is Ruby fighting Torchwick at the dust shop."

"Glynda, sit. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to see what the future formerly held in store for us" Ozpin said

"You can't be serious"

"No one here does freestyle animation in their spare time... and I believe that the details of this particular interrogation are privvy only to the participating members... so come, sit, and tell me if they got it right." Cobalt replied

Goodwitch eventually sighed and succumbed to fate.

* * *

"what? Where's the next episode?" Glynda demanded

"it's run out. Looks like Season 3's still in production" Cobalt said "we'll have to wait before we see more of Cinder's plan."

"I always suspected, but to think that Cinder would infiltrate... this bodes ill for us" Ozpin mused

"not so, Ozzy. We know, which means that with strategy we can avert or circumvent just about everything she does. She hasn't gotten us with a Morton's Fork, an unwinnable situation, just yet. There'll probably be contingency plans to deal with, but I find it hard to play chess if the pieces keep moving when you're not looking" Cobalt said

"And how do you propose we do that?" Ozpin asked

"we know three quarters of her plan: Use the Fang, Hijack the bots, undermine your PR, play off Ironwood's general denseness, and draw the Grimm into Vale... she'd use that to cause a distraction, it's all to bait you guys out so she can sneak in here and steal the Fall Maiden's remaining power... I don't know if she desires destruction or control once she has Vale by the metaphorical bollocks, but she isn't getting either if we knock her support structure out from under her... or, failing that, I'd take a fall, say I had a personal vendetta, and blow their asses so far through their face it paints the moon cherry pie red" Cobalt explained

"so you'd go on a personal crusade, destroying the White Fang's Power, you'd fight Cinder or failing that, destroy the CCT, and somehow sabotage the prototype Paladin Mechs" Ozpin summarized

"yes" was Cobalt's reply

"why, may I ask?"

"In order? because I don't want to see my friends get hurt, because I can do it and precious few others can, because I'm one of the unlucky sods who has to live in this world, and because I'm here to play the game and I'm playing to win" Cobalt said.

Ozpin turned to Lisica "And you, Lisica, are you to go along with your creator's madness"

Lisica shifted to human form to reply

"More like brother, weird as it is, and Yes. I'm a Familiar, it's my job to help this bonehead... and he's liable to get him into some pretty hot water without me" Lisica said

"what can I say? I'm a trouble magnet" Cobalt said

"very well... Even if this cartoon from another world isn't actionable intel, I can see that I'm not going to be able to stop you... however, your abilities in combat are still lacking. I can provide some opportunities for you to train and keep you from causing a widespread panic" Ozpin said "and there are some things that the Headmaster of Beacon can do that you can't"

"like the paladins." Cobalt stated

"yes. Like the Paladins" Ozpin confirmed

"sign me up. I don't care if I it's a black op or not, when I get my hands on Cinder, I'm gonna pull her head off" Cobalt said

Glynda just sighed and massaged her temples "such colourful expressions"

"My last Question before I let you go, is if you're going to tell RWBy and JNPR about this." Ozpin asked

"no"

"no?"

"to tell them everything is to invite disaster. We're all going to be changing the timeline simultaneously, and none of us are ever going to agree on how exactly we should do that. Too many people manipulating the timestream is going to not only change it beyond all recognition, rendering this intel obsolete, and we're all going to get in each other's way. Chess is a two person game for a reason, and the Red Queen's going to begin moving her pawns soon. They'll have some forewarning, to dodge the worst of it, but it's going to be strictly need-to-know. It's Blabbing, but it's last-minute blabbing" Cobalt explained

"Very well, you've clearly put some thought into this" Ozpin said

"I may not be a Bushido master, but my Bullshit-do is nigh-unparalleled, sir" I joked "fast-thinking is one of my few forte's"

"How long have you been waiting to use that joke?" Ozpin asked

"I'm embarrassed to admit it, sir."

* * *

 _ **Later that night**_

 _ **Event Quest: A Very Merry Christmas**_

 _ **Slay the Evil Snowmen: 0/100**_  
 _ **Prepare Presents**_  
 _ **-Ruby [ ]**_  
 _ **-Weiss [ ]**_  
 _ **-Blake [ ]**_  
 _ **-Yang [ ]**_  
 _ **\- Jaune [ ]**_  
 _ **\- Pyrrha [ ]**_  
 _ **\- Ren [ ]**_  
 _ **\- Nora [ ]**_  
 _ **\- Velvet [ ]**_  
 _ **\- Ozpin [ ]**_  
 _ **\- Glynda [ ]**_  
 _ **Time remaining: 11: 59 : 30**_  
 _ **Bonus: Slay even more Snowmen: 0/200**_  
 _ **Bonus: Slay Evil Frosty**_

I looked at my inbuilt map, and saw that the waypoint was for the Emerald Forest, one of my favourite stomping grounds.

I looked at Lisica. No words were spoken, but in a heartbeat both she and I were armed, her a pair of Mainz-style Gladii, and myself holding Astartes and my Storm Bolter.

We snuck out and ran another death-run.

* * *

 _ **Short Chapter guys, but this, the previous full-length chapter, plus the extra-long Christmas Special chapter, in as many days, should make up for it.**_

 _ **...what, you didn't expect an MMO to run a Christmas event? Shame on you.**_  
 _ **There really should have been a Halloween event, and possibly a Thanksgiving one, but I did not possess the presence of mind to think of those in time. Shout out to KhazintheDark for mentioning that It's Christmas. Thanks dude, you're awesome, and the reason behind the next chapter... the only way you could be more awesome is if you were beta-ing.**_

 _ **...oh, and Happy Decemberween to all you readers, faithful and new. From Christmas to Kwanza to Hanukkah to Non-descript Space-future day, to things I don't know about, whatever your December holiday is, have a good one.**_


	18. Christmas Special

RWBY and JNPR got a very strange text from Cobalt the following morning, asking them to come to one of the Common Rooms. Unfortunately, Cobalt had timed it a little early, so the teams were still waking up at this point.

Ruby was the first to arrive. There she found Cobalt, fully dressed and wide awake in front of a decorated pine tree, nursing a coffee with Lisica.

"How are you awake?" Ruby asked.

"I don't need to sleep, remember?" Cobalt replied.

"What did you do all night?" Ruby asked "You don't exactly sit around doing nothing."

"Midnight Christmas event." Cobalt replied.

Ruby performed a double take and checked the date on her Scroll. "But it's July!"

"It's December 25th back home, which means it's time for Christmas according to the Gamer. I was out in the Forest melting snowmen with the Morning Star on the North Pole... making it a, forgive the pun, a morning star. No, I'm serious, the company made it happen. I'm still figuring out if Evil Frosty and his merry band of henchmen should terrify me or not."

"Oooookay... did you loot anything interesting?" Ruby asked.

"You're not going to suffer a minor meltdown? I mean, evil snowmen, come on."

"This is becoming normal for you Cobalt. Only Weiss still complains."

An odd palette of emotions swirled across Cobalt's unusually expressive face before he finally said "Dear god, I've become Carl."

"Who's Carl?" Ruby asked.

"I need to show you Llamas with Hats sometime... Carl ends up hooked on his friends complaining at all his ludicrously horrific actions... "Because friendship is enjoying a nice roasted face together."" Cobalt explained.

Ruby suddenly felt very ill at the thought.

"Anywho, to answer your question-" Cobalt said, diverting Ruby's attention from faces and eating.

Cobalt and Lisica produced a stack of eight gift-wrapped boxes.

"Not really, but I met a guy who let me trade what I did get for these... Lisica and I didn't bother wrapping or really gifting our presents to each other... I do have something for now though" Cobalt said.

"What is it?"

Cobalt produced a red and white stocking cap, otherwise known as a Santa Hat.

"The Grimm joined in and tried to gang up on me. A few fancy moves and another missile massacre, which is apparently its own skill now, and they dropped these. I thought they'd just be a nice, festive thing to bring."

Teams RWBY and JNPR slowly filtered in, all in various states of grumpy and still-tired, which lasted all of a second before they noticed the Christmas decorations.

"Yay! Presents!" Nora exclaimed.

"Calm down, Nora. Let the normal people wake up a bit first." Cobalt chided her.

"Aww," she said.

"This way we all get to enjoy the presents at the same time... it's the little things." Cobalt explained.

"Did he just set up Christmas in July?" Weiss asked Yang.

"Apparently, it's Christmas back home, and so I've been up all night grinding away at the big Christmas event last night." Cobalt explained.

"So you had to set all this up?" Pyrrha asked.

"Nah, I slaughtered, like, a hundred snowmen earlier. I did this because I still had half a night and a bonus objective left on the quest." Cobalt explained. "I am a hairsbreadth from level 40."

"Snowmen?" Weiss asked.

"Yes. Evil snowmen hell-bent on destroying Christmas." Cobalt said with a smile. "Kinda would've put a damper on Christmas if the first thing we had to do in the morning was 'deck the halls with Frosty.'"

"Should I be surprised?" Weiss asked.

"By now? No. Apparently this is normal for me now. Creatures from beyond the outer realms, magical entities, and instant communication to other worlds... yeah, out-of-season Seasonal Events is practically normal." Cobalt said. "Though I did use the profits to get you guys some neat-o things."

"Presents?" Weiss asked, scared.

"Tasteful ones even... at least, as far as I can tell." Cobalt replied before pulling out eight steaming hot mugs of coffee.

"Oobleck's special brew" was all Cobalt said before handing out the colour-coordinated mugs. "Keep the mugs, too. I've been up all night preparing this."

Once everyone had drained their coffee, Cobalt began handing out presents.

"One for each of you. Just pull the bow."

Nora was first, yanking at the ribbon on her gift and causing the lid to turn into a puff of festive confetti. She reached inside and pulled out a tiny crown, similar to Weiss' but solid and golden, a small figurine of her, and a hammer pendant.

"A crown for the Queen of the Castle," Cobalt explained "and that hammer's a once-a-day magic item. Since your semblance uses electricity, I thought it'd be handy to have a battery to charge up, so it's supposed to crackle with electricity when you activate it."

"That. Is. AWESOME! THANK YOU!" Nora said, embracing Cobalt in a bone-crushing hug.

Cobalt, to his credit, only felt his spine pop in three places before Ren convinced her to let go.

Ruby was next and she too pulled out a figurine, as well as a fine Weapon Maintenance kit and a punnet of strawberries.

"I actually had a hard time figuring out what you'd like." Cobalt admitted. "I remembered you liked strawberries and Crescent Rose so..."

"Wow, thanks Cobalt!"

"What's with the figurines?" Blake asked.

"I ordered them in from the RoosterTeeth store. Check it out, you've totally got your own Merchandise." Cobalt explained.

Weiss opened hers next.

Inside was a large, leather-bound book and a handle that somewhat resembled the hilt of a sword, as well as her own figurine.

"This had better not be what I think it is." Weiss said

"That?... that one cost me a small fortune, and I could only afford it because Dust is such a valuable inter-dimensional export... Oh! it's nothing illicit or lewd, just... I'm not supposed to have one; that technology doesn't exist here. I had to import it. Point the flat end away out into the air and press the button. Watch out for the recoil." Cobalt explained.

Weiss did as he asked and nearly dropped the device when, with a loud "fizz-shaow", a three foot silver-white blade made from what looked to be pure energy shot out from the hilt.

The blade retracted when Weiss released the button.

"A Lightsaber." Cobalt explained "A long time ago in a Galaxy far, far away, it was a more elegant weapon from a more civilized age. The Blade is made of plasma, and can cut through nearly anything. I don't intend to replace Myrtenaster, but of all people, I thought you could appreciate such an elegant and refined weapon... or failing that, at least not lose your hand trying to use it."

Weiss was gobsmacked, as was everyone else in the room.

"The book's a manual for saber forms," Cobalt added. "because using a lightsaber isn't like using a conventional sword. Think of it as my way of saying "sorry I'm a pain in the butt 24/7.""

Blake managed to tear her eyes off of Weiss' present long enough to open hers. Inside was her own figurine, just like the others, and a large book.

"You like Fantasy Novels? Because I have two of the biggest, most seminal works from my world: The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, in one full omnibus. It's one big continuous series that kinda paved the way for an entire genre." Cobalt explained.

"Wow that's... wow." Blake said.

Next was Yang.

"I was torn between your hair and your fists." Cobalt said, as Yang pulled her figurine and two books out of her gift.

"In the end, your fists won out... now, I feel you're kinda attached to Ember Celica, so I couldn't just hand you Papa Smurf's 'Fists of Macragge', which are basically Ember Celica with ludicrous amounts of punch, so I got a pair of skillbooks: Hadouken and Shoryuken; The flaming fists of Sheng Long... y'know, because of your fiery super-saiyan mode and how your name translates to "the little sun dragon."" Cobalt explained.

Yang blinked at Cobalt.

"Just party with me and absorb the books, so you can shoot fireballs out your hands and deliver flaming uppercuts" Cobalt said.

"Oh... cool!" Yang said.

Whilst they were busy with that, Pyrrha opened hers.

"What are these?" Pyrrha asked.

"I figured you'd like something simple. they call them Bucky Balls. They're little rare-earth neodymium magnets. Given your semblance, I thought you could get some use out of them... I saw someone shoot them out a shotgun once, and they managed to put holes in a car door... or you could make pretty shapes when you get bored. Your call" Cobalt explained.

Pyrrha shone black for a moment, and the magnets started floating like Penny's swords.

"Thanks." was all she said, concentrating too hard to formulate anything more elegant.

Ren opened his and found a Bonsai tree as well as his figurine.

"I thought you'd appreciate it... y'know when you're not making sure Nora doesn't blow the wrong thing up." Cobalt said.

"Thanks, Cobalt" Ren replied.

Jaune didn't know what to make of his present.

"That's just about every 'big' movie and anime I could think of. You seemed the sort to like a good game or movie to me, so I bought accordingly" Cobalt said "you've got the full series for things like Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, The Matrix, Alien... it's far from everything, but they give a good base. I'll set up a projector... who knows, you might see something you'd like to emulate."

"This is great and all, but where did you get these things?" Weiss asked "And dare I ask what else you've bought from them?"

"The one's from my world? Apparently I can mail-order things on the internet and Metasoft brings them through... though you have to go out and meet the courier, who got me the rest. I can show you. It's out in the forest, so I'd recommend bringing a weapon along... or in Weiss' case, get some saber practice in."

* * *

As I waited for teams RWBY and JNPR to gear up, three people simultaneously found me. The ever-imperturbable Ozpin, the ever-grouchy Goodwitch, and the ever-adorable Velvet.

"Cobalt." Goodwitch said.

"Yes? If this is about the snowmen, I'm assembling a crack squad to deal with it." I said, before pausing.

."..now _there's_ a sentence you don't hear often."

Ozpin nearly choked on his coffee trying to stifle a chuckle.

A hint of motion caught my eye, and I spied the two teams approaching "Oh, and here they are now." I said.

"Well, I suppose I can't disagree with your choice. Do you have any advice for handling this new menace?" Ozpin asked.

"Fire. Anyone who can heat things up or summon/project fire is going to be invaluable... other than that? Wait it out until the Event ends in a few days and let the things melt" I said "other than that? your guess is as good as mine. The Morning Star seems particularly effective."

"I'm sorry?"

I pulled the said club out of my inventory.

"The most festive weapon ever: The Morning Star on the North Pole."

"So does that make it a-"

"Way ahead of you Blondie" I interrupted Yang.

I turned back to the two teachers and my Girlfriend.

"So, uh, the Quest that spawned these things also had a few extra objectives... uh, here" I said, producing my last three gifts.

Ozpin received a new ceramic mug, this one sporting Beacon's logo lovingly hand painted on, Goodwitch received a bottle of Australian Shiraz, straight from the Barossa Valley, and Velvet received a small silver necklace with a rabbit holding a blue cabochon gem.

"Sorry I couldn't get your colour gemstone, but the only gems that affected spellcasting were blue or turquoise... it's supposed to make casting more efficient" I explained.

"I couldn't quite figure your interests out" I said "the Wine is a Shiraz from the Barossa Valley, back home. I hear it's quite good, but I wasn't much of a foodie... the Mug, because I never see you without what I assume is a coffee, and a coffee man can never have too many mugs" I said to Goodwitch and Ozpin respectively.

"My, you put some thought into these." Ozpin said.

"I aim to please." I replied.

"Who are you, and what have you done to Cobalt?" Goodwitch demanded. "There is no way you are the same Cobalt of these past few months."

"It's Christmas... at least back home, and I like to think I can take a few guesses at someone's character, divine their interests, and find a present in the infinite cosmos that's not going to totally bomb." I said "I gotta have some good times to even out the bad ones."

Velvet interrupted our conversation by leaning in close to me.

"Thank you." she said, before kissing me. Just a quick peck on the lips, nothing more.

Let me tell you, _that_ fried more than a few fuses in Cobalt-land.

* * *

Lisica stared in awe at Velvet.

"What? What's happening?" Velvet said, stepping back from Cobalt, who had suddenly frozen up.

There was a pregnant pause as the situation developed.

"Holy shit... I have no clue how you managed it, but you just caused him to 404... There's error messages and everything. The love-struck idiot just crashed!" Lisica said.

Velvet, naturally, was horrified.

"Teach me, oh wise master." Lisica said, prostrating herself before Velvet.

Goodwitch shot a worried glance at the creature that still resembled a 13-year-old girl. Technicalities aside, it was still a concerning thing to hear.

"Just fix him!" Velvet said.

Aurum blinked in out of thin air, took one look at Cobalt before turning to Velvet and saying "Great googly moogly. He really did crash... that's really something quite special."

Aurum brung up a window that was oddly visible to everyone displaying a standard Blue Screen of Death.

"Ah, I see the issue... you caused his mind to go blank and it stopped engaging the system... hold up, you just need to reset it, like... so." She said, brining up a keyboard and hitting a few buttons.

Cobalt slowly fell backwards until he seemingly unfroze mid-fall, and managed to shout a surprised yelp before landing with a thud.

* * *

"...There, I fixed the issue, now we shouldn't have a repeat incident." Aurum said

"What happened? The last thing I remember was Velvet... kissing... oh dear" I said.

I looked around, and sure enough there was a fascinated looking Ozpin, a worried looking Glynda, and a mortified Velvet.

"I _really_ need to stop waking up like this." I said.

"Are you okay?"

I glanced at the Archon.

"He's fine. No permanent brain damage."

"This is why you have Beta-testers, right?" I asked.

"Hit the nail on the head. We're monitoring you in real time and fixing bugs before they become noticeable as well." Aurum said "We do switch off the visual feeds when things go below the belt though, so you'll need to tell us if anything goes wrong there."

"...That is both terrifying and mildly reassuring." I said "Though, that's the story of Gamer, isn't it?"

"eh... anywho, I'd check with the courier soon, your package is nearly here." Aurum said.

"Package?" I asked, but Aurum had already disappeared in a puff of glitter and smoke

"Asshole" I said under my breath.

I turned to see everyone assembled already, and there was no point beating around the bush.

" _ **Party Create: Christmas Special**_ " I commanded and quickly invited everyone.

I took a quick breath to muster myself and change 'masks'.

"Okay everyone, listen up! Today, we have two objectives! Target Primary is the Extradimensional Importer, to whom we are paying a visit. Along the way, expect to be assaulted by large groups of evil snowmen in addition to unseasonably festive Grimm. Yes, that is not a joke. Whilst bullets and swords work just fine; Your best bet is to melt the frosties and deal with the Grimm in the manner to which you are accustomed." I shouted "We have a Bonus Objective, which is to slay 200 Christmas themed enemies. You can expect your pay as a share in the dust crystals taken from our slain enemies, which carry a hefty export value with said Importer, so I expect an A-grade performance in this regard. It's time to lock and load, ladies and gents!"

I turned to Ozpin.

"If you and Glynda would be so kind as to arm the launch pads like from Initiation day, that would be just lovely."

I made to follow the two teams out to the initiation day launch pads, but was stopped by Velvet.

"You're going out to the forest?" Velvet asked.

"Eeyup. I go out there all the time. If you walk softly and carry a big stick, it's... well, it's far from safe, or easy for that matter, but this is my fourth time out there, sans most supervision, and I haven't got a scratch on me."

Goodwitch shot a glare at me.

"Well, mostly. I'm a reckless moron, so 'without a scratch' has a slightly more tenuous definition" I said "You're welcome to tag along, or watch the show from up here."

"I'll be fine" Velvet said.

"Okay... if you feel you need to... if things get hairy, we might appreciate your team on standby, since I think at least two of them can mow down mobs easy. If last night was any indication, we're gonna get mobbed by bad guys."

"Okay."

I pulled a small flatscreen TV out my inventory.

"If you want to run the video feed to this thing, be my guest. Makes it easier for others to watch me play Boarbatusk baseball with my face."

Ozpin nearly choked on his coffee stifling his amusement.

"Yeah, that was fun."

* * *

"Not this again" Jaune complained.

"Now hold on, I'm gonna head down first so I can catch you." I said "or Pyrrha can do that thing with the Javelin again. Either-Or; though I would recommend the catching, since the forest floor is teeming with snowmen right now. When you land, look for a Flare. We need to keep moving, so I'll angle the shot in the direction we need to go."

I saw the teams prepare themselves for the launch.

"By the way" Ruby interrupted "what did you and Lisica get each other?"

"Oh, that? We bought Flip-Belts. They're basically little anti-grav devices" I said, with Lisica doing a backflip on the spot, her waist moving only in it's orientation to the ground.

"Why do you need those?" Blake asked.

"They tie in with my new weapon style. "Tall is the defence that can stop a harlequin with a flip-belt."" I said "plus they make it easy to do this."

I slid a pair of goggles onto my face and acrobatically tumbled backwards, before running up and leaping off the cliffside, body soaring through the air like I was a leaf on the wind.

When I reached the zenith of my jump a good second later, I dropped a series of loud noisemakers and aimed myself to land near them.

I heard Jaune before I saw him, and angled myself towards the screaming streak of white, increasing gravity until I would intercept him.

I somehow successfully caught him and brought him under the influence of my gravity fuckery.

I landed with little more than a step and Jaune in a bridal hold.

"Please make sure your seats and tray-tables are in the upright positions as you exit the vehicle. We hope you enjoyed your flight, and would like to thank you for choosing Air Cobalt." I joked as we landed, letting Jaune down as quickly as possible.

"Never make me do that again" Jaune said.

"No promises... you should do something about that landing strategy, even if it's to simply tuck and roll and cannonball through everything." I said "you do have a 'lot' of aura, might be worth considering... or, even if you never fly again, prepare for a Nora-induced fastball special."

"A what?"

"The move where you throw a melee teammate at a bad guy to get him in melee range" I said "not that I'd do it to you, but it's an option."

"I'm glad you're on our side" Jaune said.

"So am I, so am I" I said "though I'd be a fun villain to fight: you'd never know what to expect... heh, I could build a pie throwing machine to slow you down, just for shits and giggles."

* * *

"Alright, looks like the last of them have landed" I said, some time later.

I raised a large, blue pistol and fired the shot, which ascended with a shrill 'screaming' noise.

"No way that didn't grab attention, Jaune, time to move."

I made it all of three steps before Jaune landed next to me with a snarling, top hat-wearing creature made from densely packed and rolled snow with wicked-looking branches for arms on top of his shield.

I kicked Jaune's shield, which flung the Snowman to the side before a fire-based dust grenade exploded in its face.

The creature quickly died.

"they're, like Level 20" I said "but the XP is getting divided nine ways... I got, like 29 points and- congratulations Jaune, level 17. We'll make a man of you yet!" I said.

I set out yet again, but then thought of something.

I quickly scrolled through my menus until I found the party screen, which took all of three seconds.

I then activated party chat, and was greeted by a bunch of screaming and cursing as teams RWBY and JNPR fought off the snowmen.

"I forgot this was a thing" I said.

"What the- what did you do Cobalt!?" Weiss demanded amongst the sounds of crunching snow.

"Activated party chat. We are officially communicating through my semblance... which isn't at all creepy when you say that out loud" I said "flare's up, time to get moving, people. keep in mind that we can hear if you scream for help, so feel free."

I re-loaded the flare gun and fired again for good measure aiming for the same rough location.

There was a chorus of "I see it" s and the sounds of running.

I glanced at my mission log and saw the 'slain snowmen' counter go ticking upwards.

I smiled to myself, pleased, and continued onwards as soon as I thought Jaune was following.

* * *

"So, what are we looking for?" Jaune asked.

"Last time I followed the waypoint, I stumbled across the cave you found that deathstalker in during initiation. I was kinda curious when I saw the blue torch and followed the waypoint inside."

"A blue torch like that?" Jaune asked.

"Y- yes, exactly like that" I said, heading into the cave.

The interior was rather well lit by more normal flaming torches, all located around a large stand loaded with every kind of weapon you could imagine, from shoulder-mounted four-barreled rocket launchers to something I strongly suspected was a BFG 9000c.

"Welcome Stranger, It's good ta' see ya again. Our little lady-friend left you a package last time she was 'ere. 'Ave a look." A hooded figure wearing a purple greatcoat and wearing a purple bandana over his face said with a thick accent.

He produced a large paper-and-string wrapped parcel and handed it to me. I began to work at the knots, at least trying not to just simply tear the whole thing apart.

He glanced at Jaune "Ah, and I see you brought friends this time. They're not here to return your gifts are they?" The Merchant asked.

"Not that I'm aware of, no." I said "They wanted to know where I got tech that hadn't been invented yet."

"So you led 'em here did ya? Can't say I blame ya, I'd 'ave done tha' same." The Merchant concluded.

"Hey, there's the torch Cobalt mentioned" Ruby said over party chat.

Immediately heads swivelled in the direction of the entrance.

"Ah, this must be tha' young Miss Rose" The Merchant said.

"Eeyup." I said "and judging from the comms, Weiss is with her."

"Ah, Just loike Initiation day."

"hey, how come there aren't any snowmen in here?" Jaune asked.

As if on cue, the sound of heavy-calibre machinegun fire echoed through the cave as Ruby and Weiss shrieked.

"I ain't afraid to sample the merchandise, stranger." Was the Merchant's reply.

I headed off the inevitable question with "he calls everyone 'stranger'. It's his way of saying 'if you get caught with this, you don't know me.'"

I saw Ruby and Weiss walk in.

"Welcome Young Misses, I reckon I've got something that might interest ya" The Merchant said

Ruby took one look at the merchant and froze up.

"Ruby, are you okay?" Weiss asked.

Ruby didn't reply.

"Are you drooling?"

* * *

"Everyone rested? Bought all you want?" I asked the assembled crew.

There was a round of affirmatives.

"Good, because we're going to have to shoot our way out."

There was a round of groans.

"It's not all bad, we're all in one group now, so the trek's gonna be easier"

"I might pack up too Stranger, these woods are a mite too dangerous for my tastes. I'll see you someplace else when we next meet." The Merchant said.

"You coming with us or-"

"I'll find my own way, Stranger." The Merchant said.

"Okay." I said, nodding at him.

"Alright, let's get back to Beacon. This'll be just like Initiation day."

* * *

"You were saying?" Weiss asked.

"Eeyup, Just like Initiation day" I said as I stared at a scene which could only be described as "Attack of the twenty-foot Snowman."

"Even down to the nigh-unbeatable monster on our asses."

"Don't remind me" Jaune said as Lisica carried him away in a fireman's hoist whilst using Lay on Hands to restore his aura.

All our attacks were doing scratch damage, and Frosty was deceptively fast for not having any legs.

"I never thought I'd ever hear myself seriously say this, but, _oh shit, it's mega-Frosty and he's back for revenge!_ "

I heard Yang laugh over Party Chat. "I hear that." she said.

"Hey, what about that Morning star?" Blake asked.

"This? I tried that, remember- wait a second... Ruby, I need you over here right now!" I replied, sparing a glance at the Item's description in my Inventory.

Ruby appeared alongside me.

"I can't use the Morning star at full power, but I think you can. Just hold it and wish for help." I said

Ruby stashed Crescent Rose and took the Morning Star from me.

"I wish for help!" She shouted.

There was a palpable half-moment, where once could almost hear the words "close enough."

Everything seemed to run in slow motion as the Morning Star began to shine.

I spared a glance ahead and almost didn't believe my eyes.

There, upon a Reindeer with a very distinctive red nose, was a very pissed-off man dressed in red who I could only assume was Santa.

As he charged past the two of us on Rudolph, he snatched the Morning Star from Ruby's hands, and rode onwards towards Mega-Frosty, the star atop the North Pole glowing brighter and brighter.

Eventually there was a flash of light and Lisica, RWBY, JNPR and myself all came to a full stop.

Mega Frosty was a smoking ruin, with nearly three quarters of him having been flash-vaporized.

"was that Santa?" Ruby said

"I think it was... what the actual fuck." I said, not quite believing my eyes.

"I knew he was real!" Ruby cheered.

"I... wasn't- like, I should've expected that, I really should've." I said.

* * *

"Santa Claus?" Ozpin asked with a bemused smirk.

"Christmas event..." I said "I really should've seen it coming earlier... how about we just don't mention this again?"

"Agreed."

"No one is gonna believe this actually happened... hopefully people won't know for a good long ti- You broadcasted this didn't you?"

"This time? No. I believe you said that these snowmen appeared because of your semblance. If news of that were to get out... we can only guess at the potential damage."

"Don't need to tell me twice" I said and continued onwards.

 _ **Quest Complete! For defeating the Christmas event, you have been boosted to the next level.**_

 _ **Level Up!**_

 **Your growing strength has advanced the power of your familiar.**

I blinked at the chain of messages for a few moments before it sunk in and I fist pumped.

"Fuck yeah!"

* * *

"Now let's see what Aurum got us for Christmas, Liz" I said, sitting on my bed and pulling the brown paper off the gift.

Inside was a note and a large crystal.

The note simply read "Break Me."

"Still pulling pages from Alice in Wonderland." I noted aloud.

I hefted the fist-sized gem over my head before bringing it down on the ground in front of me.

The crystal shattered like glass and immediately choked the room with smoke.

It took a few minutes of groping to find the window and open it to let enough smoke out to see the alert that had appeared.

 _ **You have registered a new Apprentice.**_

"A _WHAT!?"_ I demanded.

I was interrupted by an unfamiliar female voice "You!"

I turned to see a red-skinned humanoid with raven black hair and amber eyes that almost glowed through the thinning smoke.

She was dressed in black robes with a golden trim and holding an ordinary wooden quarterstaff.

What really caught my attention was the spade-tipped tail and the horns which reached to the crown of her head before curling upwards and outwards.

All in all, she was a very angry specimen of a Tiefling, one of the grandchildren of Demons and Pit Fiends in Dungeons and Dragons.

"Uh... hi?" I said "My name's Cobalt and-"

I was interrupted when the stranger punched me in the mouth.

"Ah, son of a bitch, OW! What the fuck did you do that for?!" I demanded.

"I am no one's slave!" She shouted at me.

"Slave? Wha- Just, what?!"

"You are not my new Master!"

"What? It says here you're registered as an apprentice!" I said.

"A- wait, what?" She said.

"This smacks of a misunderstanding. Can we possibly start over? Hi, my name is Cobalt Jinn, and it looks like a particular C-bomb is fucking with me again. You tell me your story, and I'll tell you mine."

"My name is Ravaora Helltalon, and I was told I was born into Slavery..."

* * *

 _ **Now, I can already hear complaining in the reviews. Eventually Cobalt will run with a more permanent four-man team. That was a part of the plan for a good while.**_

 _ **If you're here to complain about the Tiefling, you can thank KhazintheDark for Ravaora. I mentioned Aurum saddling Cobalt with an apprentice to test the various subsytems involved with the new DLC, and he ended up sending me an entire D &D 5e character sheet (and related codexes). Since I have brainstormed so much content for Gaming for Glory by bouncing ideas off of him and getting his input, this is my little way of saying thanks for putting up with my relative insanity.**_  
 _ **Other ideas were to have the Tiefling who would become Ravaora be a 'summon' that Cobalt could call upon, in addition to an Aasimar paladin. Y'know all that Balance of good and evil schtick. Unfortunately we didn't have an Aasimar on hand.**_  
 _ **I might be able to take the odd OC or two for cameo appearances and recurring minor characters. Do try to keep them Remnan though, this was the ultra-super-platinum premium elite deal for such good friendship and contribution.**_

 _ **If you're here to complain about the gifts, I can probably see where you're coming from. I mean, come on, A Lightsaber? Gifts from the other side of reality? The Resident Evil 4 Merchant?!**_  
 _ **Well, Cobalt already has a Storm Bolter, which is pretty mundane and from out-of-universe. It wouldn't take much to learn to fabricate a Proto-Saber from a Plasma Cutting Torch. It's right there in the parts of the EU that Disney didn't de-canonize that Plasma cutters are based on the same technology, and that a Sith Lord once fought off three partially-trained, lightsaber-weilding Jedi apprentices with a Plasma cutter.**_  
 _ **Really, given Cobalt, it was only a matter of time before he was making Protoss Double-Ended Plasma Scythes.**_  
 _ **As for the Merchant, he's practically memetic, It seemed funny at the time... and he was going to show up anyways with another DLC coming soon.**_

 _ **If you're about to complain about my Grammar and punctuation, I am trying to pay closer mind to such things, but with my Beta Readers AWOL, there's only so much I can do and still keep up with the schedule,**_ **and** _ **still find time to sink into my other hobbies.**_

 _ **As for this, holy fuck, I nearly didn't cap off the story arc, and I didn't want to post two Chapters for the same Christmas Special. That said, what do you think? On a scale from "Santa's Little Helper" episode of the Simpsons, to Star Wars Christmas special?**_


	19. Introductions

"… I killed them, too. The other slaves. With all that those bastards had done to them, it was a mercy." Ravoara said, finishing her origin story.

"That... well fuck... Aurum sure knows how to pick 'em, don't she?"

"You're not going-"

"I personally loathe the term 'Master' outside black-tie events, and then only because that's technically my 'title'. Use 'Sir', if you don't want to use my name, though I much prefer my name. As for slavery in the greater world? It's pretty much frowned upon in all four kingdoms on Remnant, and completely Illegal in three, and I'm not sure if they're actually slaves in the fourth one, or simply underpaid, overworked labourers... conditions are generally horrible there either way."

"You're not even going to-"

"Resist the call to adventure? I've read and seen enough to know that never works. Try to refuse your apprenticeship? One thing I hate about Aurum is her ability to completely dick my entire life over in a matter of seconds... in a way, I've got my own Faustian deal to worry about, so I'm going to go along with this insanity. Besides, it could be fun; and we'll probably learn things from each other."

"I'm sorry, fun?"

"The world of Remnant is a darkened place, with humanity, and I use that term as a blanket including ab-humans such as yourself and Lisica over there-"

Lisica waved a paw

"-pushed to it's four last bastions in the entire world... but the people, the awesome tech, the amazing not-magic... it's hard not to fall in love with it."

"That's easy for you to say, you-"

"-are from another world as well." I interrupted.

"Come from... what?"

"Eeyup. Apparently I come from the 'Hub World', a little blue-green rock we call Earth... or Terra. I prefer Earth, but will refer to myself as a 'Terran' here, as opposed to the native 'Remnans', from Remnant... but I digress, on the Hub World, we're aware of other worlds, but through storytelling... so, say you hear a story about a Witch who kills angels for a living on Earth, and there's a world out there where those events are playing out. I'm pulling strings here, to see if I can nudge the story in a better direction than the 'canon' sequence of events though."

"Where is here?" Ravaora asked.

"You're on the World of Remnant, on the continent known as Vytal, in the city of Vale, in my, now our, dormitory in Beacon Academy: the finest institution for turning promising adolescents into superpowered defenders of humanity. Some come for honour and prestige, while others attend this school out of a sense of duty or to become a hero. All leave with the skills and knowledge to... well, it's more like a group of mercenaries all collected around an ideal. They call themselves Huntsmen and Huntresses, and they're about the coolest damn thing this side of the Ice Planet of Hoth."

"I'm glad you think so, Cobalt." Ozpin said from right behind me.

I literally jumped out of my seat and buried my fingers in the ceiling, hanging upside down like one of those cartoon cats.

"There's a new trick." Ozpin noted, sipping on his coffee mug.

"Why didn't you say anything?" I demanded.

Ozpin sipped from his mug.

"I put a motion-tracking alarm on the door handle so people couldn't sneak in! How did you even get in here?!"

Ozpin produced the alarm, now severely damaged and out of commission

"That just raises even more questions!"

"Questions that will have to go unanswered." Ozpin said, barely concealing his grin with his mug, which I noted was the one I'd made him for Christmas.

"You here about Ravaora?" Lisica asked.

"I am. I'm here to ascertain where she stands on certain key issues." Ozpin said.

Something in the room changed, but Ozpin began exuding an 'aura' that screamed 'danger', like we were swimming dangerously close to a school of sharks.

"You're not going to be a problem; are you, miss Helltalon?" Ozpin asked

Ravaora looked like she wanted to protest, but quickly succumbed to the palpable sense of dread and fear that gripped us all.

"N- No sir." she said.

"This includes Cobalt." Ozpin added.

"O-Of course sir."

"And your... Contractor isn't going to give us problems, is he?" Ozpin asked.

"N- No sir... I can't really speak for a Pit Fiend, but he shouldn't be an issue." Ravaora said.

I breathed a none-too-small sigh of relief at that.

"That's as good as I'm going to get I suppose. I will allow this, Cobalt, though I will be having words with Aurum about this."

"How did you know?" I asked.

"Precious little happens in this school without me knowing about it." Ozpin replied mysteriously.

"Aurum told you." Lisica accused.

"I'm afraid I have to be elsewhere this morning." Ozpin said. "My apologies, Miss Helltalon, for such a rough greeting, but I cannot condone anyone posing a threat to my students. There is precious little I can do for you in allowing you to lead a normal life or even that of a Huntress, but I shall see to it that there are official documents available. Welcome to Remnant. I do hope you find your stay enjoyable."

With that, Ozpin left.

"Who the hell was that?!" Ravaora demanded.

"Professor Ozpin, headmaster of the Academy... It's by his word this whole thing flies or dies... I've never seen him quite so... hostile, until now."

* * *

"Oh god! Cobalt, what the hell did you do?"

Ravaora and I exchanged a glance.

"I opened a gift from Aurum, followed the wonderfully brief instructions, and when the smoke cleared I had a new Apprentice who was all to eager to attempt to punch my teeth in." I recounted.

Blake put her book down the second she saw Ravaora.

"What- um, would you mind introducing us, Cobalt?" Blake asked.

"Everyone, this is Ravaor and- damn that's a mouthful... do you mind if I call you Raven? It's just easier on my head." I said.

Ravaora sighed. "If you must."

I nearly missed it when Yang twitched.

"It ain't Aussie 'till it's got a nickname." I said. "Anyway, This is Ravaora Helltalon, a Tiefling warlock."

"What's a Tiefling?" Nora asked, inching foward.

"Nora, I'd recommend not touching her tail if you value your hand." I said, not even looking to know that Nora had been about to touch Ravaora's tail.

Satisfied that I wouldn't spend the next thirty minutes trying to extinguish hellfire, I cleared my throat and continued.

"A Tiefling is the descendant of a Half-Fiend or Half-Demon, who in turn is created by the commingling of Demons and Pit Fiends with the mortal races. Whilst there are a good many examples of evil Tieflings, there is no hard-and-fast rule that says they can't be the height of Lawful Good rather than Chaotic Evil... they're not the most well-liked species out there though because of this, often because they're seen as a disgrace; evidence of someone making the stupidest decision short of selling your soul to Pazuzu, who, in turn, is the god who rules Hell." I explained.

Everyone in earshot was open-mouthed gaping at Ravaora.

"Raven here's had a very shitty life up until now, so I'd like to ask you to give her a warm welcome. That said; Raven, this little band of merry troublemakers are my friends: Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna and Yang Xiao Long of team RWBY, in addition to Jaune Arc, Pyrrha Nikos, Lie Ren and Nora Valkyrie of team JNPR."

Ravaora gave a stiff nod in acknowledgement, her face seeming to naturally settle into a glare.

"Friendly much?" Yang whispered to me.

I just shrugged, not trusting my inside voice to not be an outside voice.

"I am impressed by how much you know about my species." Ravaora remarked.

"I make a point of knowing things... and I know the rough outline of whatever world you're from... again that stories and the hub world thing... speaking of, you're completely in the dark on how Remnant works, aren't you? I think I know something that might help with that... and lord knows I could use a refresher." I said.

* * *

"Okay, Remnant 101. Remnant's a very different place to where you're from... thankfully, there's a short miniseries that explains most of the basics, so if someone mentions Dust or Aura, you've got something of a handle on what those might be." I said.

Once again, right as I was about to hit play, the door practically exploded inwards.

This time I wasn't expecting it, so I immediately had Storm Bolter pointed at the door and Ravaora, not far behind, jumped up with fire swirling between her fingertips.

"Cobalt! You are exactly thirteen and a half minutes late for cla- Cobalt, who is this?" Oobleck said from the doorway.

"Does any member of the staff actually use the door like it's intended?!" I shouted "And apparently I've had an apprentice from another world foisted on me, so I was giving her the 4-1-1 on Remnant so she had some understanding of how things worked around here."

"An apprentice with an apprentice? This is highly unusual." Oobleck said, adjusting his glasses.

Ravaora sent me a glare.

"Though I suppose I can't fault your line of thinking in this serious matter. Out of curiosity, what did you need the projector for?" Oobleck asked.

"I have a bit of a miniseries that kinda primed me on the basics of Remnant, so I was thinking of using that." I said.

"Interesting. I'll see you after class to discuss this set of revelations, then. I must be off; I have a class to teach."

I watched Oobleck depart.

"Now, where were we?" I asked, scrolling through the menus until I found the appropriate videos.

The words "World of Remnant, Episode 1" flashed across the screen.

* * *

"Cobalt." Weiss said.

"Yes? What can I do for you?" I asked.

"You mentioned earlier that you knew about an upcoming theft. You gave a time, identified the perpetrators and gave a location. What are you doing?" Weiss said.

"You haven't called the police or anything have you?"

"And tell them that some lunatic who claims he's from another world told me that someone would steal Schnee dust right off the Vale City docks?"

"I've seen remarkably smart people do amazingly stupid things like you wouldn't believe. It could happen."

Weiss glared at me.

"Alright, fine. I plan to stake it out and wait for the thieves to show up. When they do, bury them and blow their equipment out of the sky."

"you- what?"

"Stinger Missiles and an Exitus Rifle loaded with Shell-breaker rounds. I'm thinking a surprise attack with sufficient firepower would drop all but the most paranoid and sturdy hunter-level opponents... and given that Shell-Breakers are hyper-velocity rounds designed to punch through psychic barriers? He's losing an arm at the least. Then, if all else fails: Plan B."

"Plan B?"

"C-4 yourself." I said, holding out a brick of plastic explosives

Weiss audibly facepalmed

"Mine are better than Yang's at least. I've at least got a little wordplay to them" I defended "Start things off with a 'yang'? That is about the lamest, most forced joke I've ever heard."

"You plan to cause a massive explosion on a dock loaded with dust?" Weiss asked

"If the asset can't be maintained, we'll deny the asset to the enemy." I said

"You realize how bad an idea that is"

""I know it's a bad idea, but in the absence of any good ideas, I'm going ahead with it anyway."... "Choosing to do nothing is no choice at all"."

"You're just full of quotes, aren't you?" Weiss said

"Yes... it helps that I'm in a quote-y mood... and I was actually browsing a few before you pulled me aside. If I were a religious man, I'd be laying down some scripture right about now... actually, there's a cosplay I hadn't considered... but where would I get the Lectitio Divinatus now that the merchant's gone and buggered off?"

"What?"

"Just putting down some material for when I want to utterly scare or confuse the crap out of someone... on a totally-and-completely-non-related note, you wouldn't happen to know much about gunsmithing, would you?"


	20. Shopping

"So, you two... I'm headed to the forge to see if this gunsmithing skill is at all worth the price of admission... play nice and all, I'll know if you start anything." Cobalt said, before disappearing.

"Gunsmithing?"

Lisica didn't look up from the phone as she said "It's a big part of what Cobalt does here: designing and forging new weapons... it's something of a passion of his... ours. A passion of ours."

"What's a gun?" Ravaora asked.

Lisica raised her eyebrows and put down Cobalt's phone.

"You didn't have the odd pistoleer with a matchlock?"

Ravaora shook her head.

"Basically, someone found that they could shoot a ball, like, a few dozen times the speed of an arrow by igniting explosive power behind a metal ball in a container with only one direction out. The coin-sized lead balls would blow a hole the size of a pot-pie in anything they hit." Lisica explained

"I'd heard of dwarven canons before. You're saying it's like that?" Ravaora asked

"Yes, that exactly. Canons are still around, in fact... it's what we basically call any non-man portable gun... Remnans are a bit ahead of earth, technologically, and on earth we'd pretty much mastered the use of firearms, which is the fancy technical term for a gun. The standard, man-portable ones are basically everywhere... they're too good to not use, really, since they can punch through most plate mail, barring the stuff that's truly exceptional, like rune armour, and can fire literally hundreds of rounds every minute, assuming infinite ammunition"

Ravaora's eyebrows rose.

"Such weapons... and you say humanity is still endangered?" She asked, though she struggled with the term Cobalt had used

"The Grimm are no laughing matter."

"And you say Cobalt is learning to make these guns?" Ravaora asked

"He's got a lot to learn and a lot of practice to get in... I'd steer clear for now, like most advanced technology, if you don't do it _just_ right it tends to explode, violently, if you try to use it." Lisica said

"Oh."

"I'll tell you when it's been tested. I think you'd appreciate a good boomstick" Lisica said.

Ravaora's reply was cut off when Velvet let herself in the room.

"Is Cobalt here?" She asked.

"You just missed him. he's gone to the forge. If you hurry, you might just catch him." Lisica said.

"Thanks Lis-"

"Dear god, what _are_ you wearing?" Coco demanded from her position at the door.

Lisica went wide-eyed and began looking for exits, but Ravaora, unknowing of the dangers, simply replied: "This? These are just some mage robes. Why?"

Coco lowered her stylish sunglasses. "You must be the devil-girl people have been saying Cobalt summoned so he could fu-"

"Language!" Velvet reminded Coco.

"Wait; what?!" Lisica and Ravaora both shouted.

"I'm his apprentice!" Ravaora shouted.

"Lies! Filthy lies!" Lisica shouted.

"You mean, Cobalt didn't- wasn't-" Velvet asked.

"Let me put it this way" Lisica said, cutting Velvet off

"Cobalt and I share our soul, one half between each of us." Lisica explained "This has the added effect of experiencing everything the other does... it's gotten confusing, occasionally, like looking at the wrong screen in Mario Kart before realizing you're the idiot who's driving into walls. Can you imagine how awkward sex would be for either of us? It's bad enough just hearing it through the walls... and neither of us can just put on some headphones to drown it out either..."

Lisica glanced at her roommate "oh, and Raven's here because dimensional shenanigans and a crystallized spell which set her as Cobalt's apprentice... aand Raven'd sooner melt Beacon with hellfire than screw Cobalt... and Cobalt's somewhat afraid of her for... reasons."

Everyone assembled stared at Lisica like she'd grown a second head... which really only got worse when the Kitsune started laughing.

"Velvet, you might want to go help disarm a minor situation with Yang and Weiss" Lisica said "Yang's kinda got him by the balls with this one. If you don't want to pick him up from the medical ward later, you're gonna have to move quick."

Velvet immediately paled and dashed around the corner.

Coco shook off her mute shock and readjusted her sunglasses.

"Okay, disturbing revelations aside, the two of you are officially fashion disasters."

Lisica's smile couldn't have fled her face faster if it was tied to the SR-71 "Blackbird"

Coco pulled a walkie talkie from her handbag... the same handbag Lisica could've sworn housed her minigun.

"Yatsu, false alarm, but I need you to help me correct two code fives" Coco said

There was a sigh from the other end and the sound of heavy footsteps echoed down the hall.

Yatsuhashi pushed past Coco, who was still blocking the door.

Lisica quickly turned into a fox to try and escape, but Yatsuhashi managed to wrap his fingers around her in a display of impressive dexterity and reflexes, before readjusting so that he was holding her by the scruff of the neck.

"You realize how humiliating this is and will be, right?" She asked.

"Yes on both accounts." Coco replied, shit-eating grin a mile wide.

Raven growled at Yatsuhashi, who proceeded to not give a fuck and sling the angry Teifling over his shoulder in a fireman's hoist. This wasn't the first time Coco had roped him into wrangling a fellow student that Coco had deemed too unfashionable.

"To the usual spot." Coco said.

Yatsuhashi just sighed and began to walk out the room.

"You don't have to do this, y'know!" Lisica pleaded.

"I know, but Coco frankly scares me than either of you." Yatsuhashi replied.

"You do realize you've got a literal demon-girl slung over your shoulder, right?" Lisica asked.

"Yes."

"One who made a contract with a pit-fiend and could likely bathe the whole place in hellfire?" Lisica added.

"Still doesn't change my mind."

"...okay, what did she _do_?" Lisica asked.

"I'd rather not say."

* * *

"If you think I'm wearing that, you've got another thing coming!" Ravaora said.

"What's wrong with the combat dress? It's better than those pyjamas you were wearing earlier!" Coco argued back.

Lisica spared the two a glance before resuming her hunt. Amusement radiating off her as she was aware of Cobalt's ever-growing horror as she rapidly discovered the joys of shopping.

"Now where is- aha!"

Yatsuhashi glanced with worry over at Coco and 'Raven', ready to step in to prevent a small war, whilst Lisica stepped into a change room.

Just as the argument was about to rear a violent head, Yatsuhashi tactfully interrupted to two of them and indicated that Lisica had decided on an outfit.

Coco approached the changing room.

"What you got the-" she began, but never finished as a torrent of blue flame threatened to scorch her eyebrows off, accompanied by a girly 'eek!'

Yatsuhashi wisely decided to vacate the changing rooms and look like he had nothing to do with anything as a clerk armed with a fire extinguisher ran past.

He managed to spy 'Raven', who seemed to be talking to one of the store clerks before being led to a section in the back of the store

* * *

Yatsuhashi eventually heard the chatter in the change rooms stop and was surprised to see Coco being dragged behind Lisica, who had ensnared Coco with one of her tails.

Lisica was dressed in a blue jacket that reached to her knees, similar to the greatcoat that Cobalt wore everywhere he wasn't wearing a uniform.

Underneath she was wearing a black sleeveless shirt with gold trimming that left her midriff exposed, black jeans with what appeared to be black leather reinforcement around the thighs, and tall boots that reached to mid shin, also with golden trimming.

Lisica had also tied up her normally loose hair into a loose ponytail.

As Lisica lifted Coco to look her in her eyes, Yatsuhashi also noted the leather glove and golden bangle she was wearing over her right sleeve.

Overall, the effect was more 'street punk', and reminded Yatsuhashi of that movie Fox had once shown him about street racing.

"Now, now Coco, you should remember it's not polite to peek."

Coco's reply was muffled by the large amount of tail covering her mouth. Yatsuhashi had to wonder if Lisica's tails had always glowed blue like that.

"And to think, I would've never have pegged you for a member of the 'all girls' team." Lisica added.

Coco's eyes widened.

"Not to mention kinky enough to make a long-time netizen cringe. I did mention how Cobalt would know intimately if we did the do." Lisica added with a vicious smirk.

Coco was furiously denying everything through the muffling.

Lisica let her suffer for a moment before she laughed and let Coco go.

"You're not my type." Lisica said, as if she were discussing the weather.

"That was a mean prank to play." Ravaora said.

"Maybe so, but it was perfectly harmle- nice outfit." Lisica said, turning to see that Ravaora was out of her robes at last.

Ravaora was instead wearing a burnt orange sleeveless top, similar to a tank-top, with a smaller neck hole. She also had a black 'collar' made from tough-looking black leather and golden trim that stretched from mid-neck outwards to protect her shoulders.

She was wearing close-fitting, but not tight, leather pants and tall leather boots that similarly reached to mid-shin. Both were black with a similar burnt orange trim. A black leather belt rested on her hips, over her other clothing, which sported several large pouches and large book bound in ochre-coloured leather.

On her right arm was a long glove in a similar black leather, this time with a golden trim, and her left sported a large metal bracer with the image of flames engraved on its surface.

"Nice." Coco said.

"Are we done here, or am I going to have to watch you two shame yourselves further?" Ravaora demanded.

"Nope, we're done." Lisica said.

* * *

"Fire in the hole!" I shouted and ducked behind the sandbags, yanking on the string in my hand.

The was a tiny 'click' before an almighty 'CRACK!'

I peeked over the barricade and saw, much to my delight, that the whole thing had withstood the stresses of actual use, and once the smoke cleared, I saw that the bullet had blown the cube of clay into a million tiny pieces.

I giggled at this initial success. I'd successfully developed a black-powder rifle... modified to use a more modern cartridge that I'd had to go and buy primers for.

Now I needed to figure out how to make it semi-automatic... springs to shunt it back... probably use a gas-powered system... I'll need to check how that's done.

I brought out copy of Weapons Magazine and consumed it.

 _ **Smithing has increased by 1**_

 _ **Gunsmithing has increased by 1**_

 _ **Chemistry has increased by 1**_

 _ **Dust Alchemy has increased by 1**_

 _ **Metallurgy has increased by 1**_

 _ **Engineering has increased by 1**_

 _ **New Schematics unlocked.**_

A quick check produced some intriguing ideas.

Weapons Magazine talked about all kinds of weapons, and everything to do with them. That much would be obvious from the title. There was several recipes for new dust-mixes that'd produce more or less bang for your buck, depending on what you wanted and your budget, along with discussions over various alloys for making new weapons out of.

And, in between all that, there was advertisements for civilian-model weapons and new designs that a 'think tank' had produced. Some of them even mecha-shifted a bit, even in the design stage.

All in all, it was quite fascinating, and it boosted no fewer than six craft-related skills when I consumed it.

That was another thing I'd recently discovered: that I could repeatedly consume a skillbook to boost the related skill.

I also found that I could produce skill books from existing skills.

Unfortunately, I found that they'd thought about me cheesing the system and had prevented me from consuming my own skill books... I'd need a second gamer to gain infinite, near-instant, level 100 skills.

It made real-world sense, and would've been a total game-breaker... I couldn't help the feeling of disappointment though. Got my hopes up and everything.

I'd have to make sure to duplicate Weapons Magazine before Ruby noticed.

I'm sure she'd understand even if she did, and I was replacing it.

….Y'know, I could probably crash the entire Remnan economy if I wasn't so greedy and such a pack-rat about loot.

I could probably drop dust prices by flooding the market with my own Grimm-Dust. The only downside is that it's still too soon to throw a wrench into Cinder's plans... that, or I'd end up providing Cinder with a boatload of dust, and that was a no-no.

So it looks like I get to be a greedy little shit a while longer... well, I suppose I can hand some out amongst friends if I suffer an attack of conscience.

I shook myself out of my thoughts and pulled the pipe rifle, which wasn't much more than a spring-loaded hammer and a break-action barrel, and brought it back to the workshop for furnishing.

An idea for a joke occurred to me, and it was just too good to resist.

The schadenfreude was tangible just thinking about it.

But where to get the good modelling clay?

* * *

 **I'm sure that somewhere in the world it's still Wednesday... I'm late on this one.**

 **I can promise you though that next chapter we wrap up what little story there is to season 1, and have a big reveal along the way.  
you'll never guess what.**


	21. The Stray

Well... this was a disaster and a half.

I fucked up, big time.

I steamrolled a big reveal, cancelled out any possible character development and... Now it's worse.

Blake was gone. She'd run out after admitting her affiliation. The argument had still happened.

Weiss was angry with me, Blake was probably angry with me, and I couldn't bear to show my face around Ruby, Yang or JNPR. Ravaora was as abrasive and non-trusting as usual, not really getting, or possibly believing, my intentions.

I'd told Ruby, truthfully, that outside of "café in Vale, at an unspecified time or location, with Sun Wukong," I had no clue where she was. She'd tried cheering me up, but I hadn't quite gotten over the 'kicking the shit out of myself' phase, and I'd ended up telling her to give me some time and space.

Worst of all, I was angry at myself. Try as I might, I couldn't have called it an honest mistake. I could've done this or that, but I was getting nowhere. I just wanted to literally bury my head in the ground and scream incoherently until I couldn't any more.

So, here I was, about to make up for my mistakes. Or at least try.

"Whatcha buyin', stranger?"

"Exitus Rifle. Shell Breaker rounds. Five of them." I said.

The Merchant blinked in surprise

"What'cha gonna do with that, stranger? Hunt yerself an Elephant?" He scoffed.

"Eventually. Right now, someone with possible 24/7, soul-based personal shielding needs to die."

The Merchant blinked again

"Alright stranger... just be warned that you're playing a dangerous game here."

"Playing a dangerous game began when I got conscripted. This here is 4th degree fuckery, and I'm fully ready to get turned to red goo for it... If I'm going to fuck up, I'm going to cock things up royally for the other guy as well." I said.

The Merchant sighed

"Alright stranger... You should know that raiding the armouries of the Officio Assassinorum is tricky and dangerous business, even for an expert gun runner such as myself. This won't be cheap."

"Take everything and give me a store credit." I said, producing almost a hundred dust crystals, my entire stock, and putting them on the table, at least a dozen of each type.

"Stranger, this is far, far more than enough to cover the cost of even this weapon."

I sighed.

"I suppose I do need to cool my jets... what can you get me on non-invasive neural interfaces? I have a few projects I want to look into... and how about some kind of anti-air missile? The bad guys have tiltjets."

* * *

And that's how I ended up on a rooftop in the middle of the night watching a large patch of the Vale Docks for three nights in a row. I'd turned off my scroll to prevent others from finding me, and just kept the blanket which kept me camouflaged against the grey concrete above me.

Not needing to eat, drink or sleep had it's advantages... though once the boredom set in, Lisica and I took shifts between sleeping and keeping watch.

I checked and rechecked the beast I cradled in my arms.

Nitrous Oxide coolant sheathe... still freezing to the touch.

Rounds?... Still in their little velvet-lined box... still no theories on how they worked and the manufacturers didn't exactly know either. They're supposed to phase straight through all sorts of psychic forcefields and personal shielding to deliver high-velocity death.

And a Psyker and a Hunter both used their soul to accomplish their supernatural feats.

Lisica?... Ready on the missile... and bored as I was.

H.V.T.?... Not here, yet.

The view out to sea was gorgeous though.

I'd even purchased a mask, which I now wore. A silver mask in the shape of an androgynous, horned face with a golden chin and jaw... it was just a mundane mask with a metallic paintjob though. It, combined with a black hoodie jacket, helped to conceal my identity and keep me warm.

I may not be completely alone as I danced, but the Solitaire's mask was really pretty.

A brief spot of motion caught my eyes, and I sure as shit found Blake and Sun on the rangefinder.

Well, the VIPs have arrived.

I waited for another hour before a tiltjet landed and out poured a dozen White Fang, and Roman Torchwick.

I carefully cracked the seal on a round and slowly and quietly chambered it.

I looked through the scope to find that Blake was now blocking my shot, and holding Roman at knifepoint.

God damn it. I needed a distraction.

I waited and, sure as shit, the Bullheads appeared. I could almost hear that smug asshole's line from here. "I wouldn't call it a _little_ operation"

Lisica fired and a streak of light, smoke and noise arced straight into the cockpit of one of the Bullheads, somehow not detonating until in the cargo/passenger compartment and blowing one of the engines clean off, causing the aircraft to tilt and ram it's fellow VTOL.

I awarded Lisica bonus points for the double-kill.

Blake hit the deck and Roman stumbled away from her. I shifted and took the shot.

The Exitus Sniper Rifle is a very unique weapon used almost exclusively by Vindicare Assassins in Warhammer 40K, each of whom was basically 'sniper supreme' and made Simo Haya look like a bad joke. Described as "powerful enough to punch through dreadnaught armour, yet quiet enough to not wake the baby you're cradling on the buttstock," I discovered in that moment that the rifle was worth all the hype.

With a whisper-quiet 'flick', Roman Torckwick's left arm exploded like it was a sock of jelly.

I'd missed my target. Prop wash from the jets, the sudden movement, and my decision to try to quickscope the fucker cost me my first shot advantage.

I racked the bolt and reached to chamber the next round, only to find a high heel pinning my hand to the ground.

I looked up and felt my heart freeze in mute horror, as a particularly short, ice-cream-themed mute looked me in the eyes.

I shook myself free and merely quipped "So you're here, huh?", glad the mask concealed my expression

Neo smiled.

I fired off an Observe, and nearly suffered a small heart-attack.

She was level 84, had nearly twice my dexterity, and a decent intelligence, which were both stats I wanted to build and base my style on, and what little I knew of her meant this was going to go oh-so-horribly bad.

But that's not what caught my attention.

What caught my attention was the little label above her head.

 _ **Neopolitan, Level 84 Illusionist/Duelist**_  
 _ **The Gamer**_

Needless to say, I very nearly shit myself.

"You... you're..." I stammered.

Neo, who had been reaching for the dagger in her umbrella paused, apparently interested in what I had to say.

"How are you... Aurum said... wait, she didn't say anything... fuck it, Re-do: You're a Gamer!"

Neopolitan completely froze; then -faster than I could follow- had her cane sword -which I was now acutely aware had sharp edges- against my throat.

I blinked as I received what I quickly realized was a PM. Semblance to semblance communication. No wonder she never said anything.

 _"How?"_

"I- look, this is... I'm a Gamer as well. I thought you would've observed me before Y-… before you stuck a knife in my back. You were courteous enough to let me know you were there and all." I explained.

Neo narrowed her eyes.

 _"Show me."_

"O-o-of course." I stammered and brought up my status screen. I quickly changed my title and had Lisica change hers.

Neo's eyes went wide before narrowing.

"We're still going to fight I presume?" I asked.

Neo merely smiled as she sheathed her dagger and held her umbrella out in a classical fencing pose.

"Y'know, I've seen you 'work' before. Scary stuff"

Neo stumbled

 _"How?"_

"It's a long story." I said as Lisica appeared next to me, in fox form to fit in my inventory. Instead of converting to human form like usual, she simply grew to the size of a St. Bernard again and readied her tails.

"A _really_ long story." I added.

Neo frowned, and I charged.

The first engagement... went shit. I parried her umbrella with one kukri, but before I could strike with the one in my main hand, I felt her umbrella rapping at my ribs hard enough to force me off balance, enough where a strike to the face sent me sprawling on the concrete.

Lisica bathed Neo's general direction with fire to cover for me and quickly moved to avoid the retaliation.

Straight fighting wasn't going to work. Neo was just too fast. Fast as in 'block bullets with a melee weapon' fast.

I was going to need to revert to my bag of tricks and bullshit for this... and I'd been dearly hoping to squick Weiss with this one too... ah well, what she doesn't know won't hurt her.

I got into the mindset and pulled out an old tactic.

"I POWDERED MY MEAT MUSKET!" I shouted, and in one smooth motion (that I totally hadn't practiced over and over), I stashed a kukri and pulled out my pipe-rifle, now decorated with modelling clay and paint.

The barrel resembled a set of vertebrae, and I'd even made it look like the barrel was the spinal canal, with the 'mouth' of the barrel being shrouded by a fake skull. The foregrip was disguised as a muscle, the mechanism was covered with a human hand with the hammer sticking directly into the last digit of the middle finger, and the buttstock was disguised as a foot, complete with disgusting toenails.

All in all, it was thoroughly disgusting, and I was rather glad it wasn't real as I fired it at Neo, who was in the middle of recoiling in shock.

That didn't stop her from parrying the bullet, but I'd gone and stacked the entire deck. Lisica managed to bite Neo's ankle and tossed her around like a ragdoll with the strength boost her extra size granted...

Yes, above the strength that I'd measured and realized was just shy of old Earth records. That had been a scary-awesome day.

Lisica threw Neo at me and I slammed a giant haymayker in her face with every ounce of strength I had

There was a tinge of shameful pride for punching a short girl in the face... but god _damn_ was it satisfying to watch her arc through the air and across the roof like that.

Unfortunately, I forgot she was as hard to stun as I was... and that stunning, like WoW's intimidating shout, broke on damage... something about slapping sense back into a person.

I heard glass shatter and immediately felt a boot hit the back of my head.

I then felt Lisica get flying-axe-kicked in the head as Neo started teleport-striking us.

I tried to get up, to do _something_ to prolong my life. That dream was crushed by a high heel on my back.

Neo grabbed my hair and put her sword to my throat.

"Go ahead, end me. You've got no reason not to."

 _"You interest me too much."_

"Okay- wait, what?"

There was a pause as I assume she prepared the message.

 _"From another world? Your little pet? This semblance we share and that little parlour trick from earlier... You're quite the fascinating little find... and not half a bad catch. It'd be a shame to kill you here."_ Neo messaged, removing the blade and replacing it in her umbrella.

"were you not- are you _hitting on me_?" I asked, confused.

 _"Maybe... but you're too sloppy, slow, and under-equipped to take_ me _on."_

More Bullheads appeared, and the sounds of another gunshot was audible. Ruby was here, and so was another fleet of Bullheads. One appeared over us, guns no doubt pointed straight at Lisica.

It was speared in half by a giant green laser.

Penny was Combat ready.

 _"Another time, Darling. Until then, toodles."_ Neo messaged, grabbing my pipe rifle, which I had dropped to punch her, and shattered again.

This time something was left behind.

Two large books.

Crawling, I managed to shuffle my way over to them and have a look

To my utter surprise, I saw that they were skillbooks, one was for flash, an instantaneous, but short-ranged teleport, the other though.

I tapped one of Neo's PMs.

 _"If I could, I would hug you right about now"_

 _"XD"_

The skill book was for a somewhat essential skill, Instant Dungeon, which let me produce small pocket realities that produced enemy monsters automatically, or could be loaded up with a 'custom module' for adventuring goodness.

* * *

Eventually I recovered enough to get up and pack all my shit up before dropping down from the roof.

I saw Penny edging away from the group towards an alley, and swiftly made my way to her

"Hey Penny!"

Penny jumped in surprise and asked "who are you? How do you know my name?"

"I'm a friend of Ruby's with... shall we say, a semblance that deals heavily with gathering information." I said.

"You must be Cobalt; Ruby mentioned you a lot. She said you were a 'nice jerk'."

"That's me... to a 'T'."

"What did you want? I really need to get going."

"I'm here to ask you for a favour... suffice to say, I'm aware of your... ab-human nature, and was wondering if I could ask Professor Polendia a few questions... strictly on the down-low and for academic reasons, obviously... but I am curious as to matters dealing with souls." I explained.

"You..."

"As I said, I'm a friend, and I make it a policy to judge _who_ a person is, not what... and I can keep a secret... and I sound super shady right now, I realize, but if you could do this for me, I would be very grateful for it... just, next time you're with your dad, mention me and my curiosity?" I said.

"You're asking for top secret information." Penny said.

"I know... I'm not sure what I can do for you with you being on military lockdown, but I'd owe you a massive favour if you could ask someone about it." I said.

I looked and saw a black limousine approaching.

"Looks like your ride's here. I'll let you go, I need to apologise to, and catch up with, my other friends."

"...Farewell Cobalt"

"Till we meet again." I said.

* * *

"Look, Weiss, I-"

"Zip it." Weiss said. "Do you know how long we've been searching for you? Three days!.. And in those three days, I've decided... I don't care! You're not with them any longer, right?"

"Well, yeah, but-"

"Up-pup-pup-pup, not another word. Cobalt went missing not long after you did and we've still got to find _him._ "

" _A-hem._ "

Weiss turned to see someone wearing a hoodie and a silver mask, with a large rifle slung over their shoulder.

"Who are you?" Weiss demanded

"I'm the asshole who shot down a bullhead and blew Roman Torchwick's arm off." The figure replied with a familiar voice.

Cobalt removed his mask and lowered his hood.

"How- you what?" Ruby demanded

"The Bullhead or Roman?"

"Roman's really good, how'd you hurt him?" Ruby said.

Cobalt slung the rifle off his shoulder and threw it to Ruby.

"Using this" Cobalt said.

"...Come again?" Ruby said, turning it over.

"It's a big powerful gun I got to take down rogue hunters at extreme ranges" I explained

Three of them looked at me in something approaching horror. Ruby was too busy comparing the rifle to Crescent Rose's sniper.

"Unfortunately, I've just had my ass handed to me on a silver platter... I'm going to need to train"

"I'm sorry to interrupt, but who are you?" Sun asked.

"I'm Cobalt Jinn, purveyor of magic and general insanity, weirdness magnet and Gamer." I said.

Sun snorted "I like you."

"You'd love my... err, half-sister, Lisica." I said, as said fox appeared from my inventory and morphed into her human form.

You could almost see the little love hearts in Sun's eyes.

"Well hello there, beautiful." Sun said.

"Hello to you too." Lisica replied.

"You're related to him? You two look nothing alike."

"In a sense..." Lisica replied, giving the 'Ben Kenobi answer.'

"What's that supposed to mean?" Sun asked.

Yang and I could barely contain the snickering, Weiss was trying to ward him off, and Blake was glaring daggers at Sun.

"I'm the other half of his soul."

"Heh- wait, you're serious?"

"yes." We both replied

"actually, how big are you now? I haven't seen you at full size in a while." I asked Lisica

Within seconds there was a Four-tailed fox the size of a sedan looming over Sun.

I noted in an off section of my brain that Lisica was only slightly smaller than Sadaharu from Gintama... which set my brain off in all kinds of hilarious tangents... some of which were too good to pass up.

Lisica wasn't the biggest fan, and within a few moments we'd settled on a "sometimes" bargain.

"Hello! Cobalt?! The police are here!" Weiss said

I then realized that I had accidentally ignored the world around me.

"Sorry, just developing some ideas involving Lisica's prodigious size" I said

"Like what?" Weiss asked.

Lisica lowered a tail which I used as a stepping stone to climb up on her back.

"Oh you have got to be kidding me." Weiss said.

"Um... sir, I'm going to have to ask you and your friends to come with me to the station."

"Liz and I can follow behind the car, officer." I said.

"You're gonna ride that?"

"It's a car-sized fox. Why wouldn't I ride it when she'll allow me?"

"O-okay sir, right this way... I swear they don't pay me enough for this crap."

"Story of my life, officer."

* * *

 **So, there's, like, 6 or 7 ideas I've been playing with up until now in this chapter.**

 **Neo as a rival gamer: let's face it, the Gamer is super-op bullshit... This becomes some sort of god-mode Mary Sue fic if I don't do something to throw a challenge at Cobalt... and I personally felt I needed to kick Cobalt's ass (and kick his ass into gear as well) and Neo can do all sorts of things with her semblance in the show. It's not hard to re-imagine them as spells she's learnt.**

 **The ambush at the docks: If it were me... yeah. We have a time, we have a place, we know who we're looking for, and there is absolutely nothing stopping us from grabbing a high-powered rifle and lying in wait.**

 **Exitus Rifle: OP, I know, but he has all of f*ck-all opportunities to actually use the thing... plus it was the biggest, most powerful rifle I could think of on short notice, and the wiki pointed out the existence of "Shell-Breaker rounds" which are designed to ignore psychic barriers and shields… in a world where psychic powers are based upon the soul. It was a match made in heaven, really, for taking out Hunters... plus Vindicares are my second favourite Imperial Assassins, second only to Eversors.**

 **Cobalt's f*ckup: yeah, someone pointed out I botched the early reveal, and I couldn't help but agree with them. So this.**

 **And set-up for two or three ideas. Some funny, some a big-time plot for keeping Cinder from fucking Vale up.**

 **Review Replies:**

 **Guest: that weapon... what? How would- you realize this thing basically requires that it be mounted on a tank or HEAVY mechanized walker, right? Like, that's a metal-gear size weapon.**  
 **Anything big enough to support the sheer weight of that gun is just simply too big for Cobalt to manufacture.**

 **Jack Redhawke: Last Stand mode is... have you ever played Borderlands? (if not, why? Go play it) When your character's health hits 0 in Borderlands you enter last stand mode, where you have a limited time to defeat an enemy and be revived, or just bleed out on the sand. An Ally can also pick you up if they're feeling magnanimous.**  
 **Basically I just took that almost verbatim and transplanted it here as a way for Cobalt to survive the early levels.**


	22. The Best Day Ever

Season 1 was over, and not long after, the school semester, which left me looking back on the last crazy few months.

I'd done some things, some good, some bad, and a whole lotta 'meh'… but, then again, that's me.

My life could be officially declared to be something resembling on track. I had a girlfriend and we even went on dates, albeit sometimes. I had a future job and was training for it.

The future was somewhat uncertain, but that was constant in any military, even one as unconventional as the hunters of Remnant. I could die tomorrow, zerg-rushed by Grimm, or I could just completely fail to age and live until the end of humanity.

I briefly pondered what that might be like before resuming my other musings.

I'd learned and performed literally dozens of impossible feats, such as freakin' magic, and learned things I'd never thought I would in a million years. I'd forged my own melee weapons after all. That was something I never thought I'd do.

Things hadn't been all sunshine and roses though. I'd failed my biggest, most important tasks, had been ID'd, no doubt, by the bad guys as having a powerful semblance, making me something to deal with and things would soon accelerate: I had three new major events to interfere in, had to learn either how to punch above my weight class or start stacking the pounds on until I was in that weight-class, or both, and I had to figure out how to do this without causing a major panic... that, and still somehow attend the school dance and not push all my friends away from me. I want to fix that whilst I'm here.

And then I needed to prepare so I could disarm and defang Cinder. Season 3 would come, predictably after Season 2, and was shaping up to have even worse events in store...

And I didn't fancy RWBY and JNPR's odds for surviving intact. I was getting bad vibes from that scene in the season 3 opening where team RWBY, except for Ruby herself, was sleeping... and I'd done some digging, and noted that Pyrrha highly resembled Agent Carolina from Red vs Blue... the same Agent Carolina who had gotten two AI implants and had ended up horribly fucked up as a result.

That, and I was willing to bet money that Pyrrha going down, especially like that, would cause Jaune to pull a "Vader."… wrong place, wrong time and all that jazz, and a misunderstanding of cosmic proportions.

I would sooner die than let _any_ of that happen.

Cinder had two armies at her disposal by the time of Season 3, but Ozpin had much smaller ones to fight them with and poorer positioning on his. Not to mention that one of those armies was his own students and the hunters of Vale, who Cinder had already planned around.

If I was to be the wildcard that destroyed Cinder and stopped her plot to bring down Vale, I'd need to stop both the White Fang and the atlesian mechanized forces.

That was a job too big for Liz, Raven and I. No matter which way you sliced it, there were maybe hundreds of robots, and god knows how many White fang, and of those White Fang, how many were hunter-class fighters?

I'd need help... but I couldn't trust anyone with this... Cinder's got anyone even remotely important on a watch or bought out, and the last person who needs to know about a secret army being made specifically to stop Cinder, is Cinder...

The fewer people that know, the better, this included Ozpin. The fewest people would mean... hmm... it'd be tough but it was workable... and once I had a few, I could have them help with the rest...

The force couldn't be too large. It'd take too long to deploy. This needed to be as swift, brutal and precise as a fucking Spetznaz hostage rescue... which, honestly it could well turn out to be, on the scale of a city. Quality over quantity then...

It was obvious that the White Fang and Atlas were just distractions from her real prize... I'd need someone to command the force whilst I cut the head off the snake... yes, this could work, this could work extremely well... and I was already developing the requisite skills and technologies...

And with my unique access to off-world technology, materials and supplies, this army would be all but unstoppable.

I chuckled to myself at the frankly intoxicating thought.

I'd need somewhere secret and remote though; no one could know about it, and I need it sometime around now.

As if on cue, Aurum appeared, which didn't fail to send a spike of dread through my stomach. Aurum never meant good things.

"Guess what time it is!" Aurum said.

"Um... 2:30?" I suggested with a glance at my watch, unable to keep my face from contorting into a shit-eating grin.

"No, it's half past a NEW DLC!" She exclaimed.

I somehow managed to inhale my own spit.

"*Cough* you *cough-cough* you what?"

Aurum handed me an ink-on-dead-trees scroll which only had a magic circle on it, just like last time.

Again, I absorbed it, but rather than some fundamental change in my being, the sensation was more akin to a connection being established.

Some mental probing didn't produce much of anything.

I felt something in my pocket, which was odd since nothing was kept in there anymore.

I pulled it out and found some sort of ID card.

 **Would you like to add this ID Module?**  
 **Y/N**

" **Yes** "

 **Stronghold "Orbital Fortress" added to Instant Dungeons.**

My eyes went wide, before I laughed and cried at the same time. I even hugged Aurum, much to her surprise.

She was made from a close relative of molten gold that didn't emit much heat, but I still I felt my skin crackle and quickly had to let go or risk char-grilling myself to death, but it was worth it.

I quickly disappeared from Remnant to get things started.

* * *

 _ **Two Weeks Later**_

* * *

"Hey Lisica, where have you and Cobalt been?" Ruby asked.

"We've been out of town, training" Lisica replied.

"I haven't seen him since the holidays started." Ruby said.

As if on cue, Cobalt, missing his jacket, covered in grease stains and transmission fluid, and looking like he'd been working like crazy for way too long, appeared out of thin air.

"Cobalt!"

"Hey Rubes, how're you doing?" Cobalt said.

"Just fine- ugh, why are you covered in grease?" Ruby asked.

"I've been working like crazy on the maddest scheme of them all... it's a big surprise though, so it's all hush-hush I'm afraid." Cobalt replied.

"what kind of surprise"

"the sort that you'll love... right now though? I need to rejoin society" I said

"Well, I'm off to the Cafeteria." Ruby said.

"I might clean this off and catch up with you there." Cobalt said, smiling for some odd reason.

* * *

By the time I arrived it was already far too late.

"Justice will be swift, Justice will be painful; it will be Delicious!"

"Yeah!"

I looked at Lisica.

"You let the party start without me?" I asked as the first shots rang out, Watermelons arcing up high.

Lisica just tossed a baguette and brace of carrots towards me and leapt up high

I caught both, and followed her.

Our arc carried us towards the watermelons, where we caught some and redirected them more accurately at the two teams, followed by fans of kni- err, carrots, which scored a few glancing hits.

Lisica and I landed between the two teams and held our swor- baguettes out and at the ready. The challenge was clear: we would fight all comers, from either team.

A proud boast, maybe, but what's life without a little fun.

Our challenge was answered first by Pyrrha and Blake, and we each dueled, myself vs Blake, and Lisica vs Pyrrha.

We each danced around and for our opponents, swept at legs here, contorted around a strike there, traded blows, all four members taking the odd blow, and eventually managed to switch at the last moment, forcing both into a 'saber lock'.

There we tested ourselves against each other, brute force leveraged against each other.

We were interrupted and forced to break off by a turkey-strike, courtesy of Yang which caused most everyone to scatter before Liz and I pounced on the turkeys.

Lisica and I each tore off a pair of legs, and switched to a style more befitting a kukri than a sword.

Blake had similarly switched to the chain of sausages (and I was forced to wonder once more what kind of cafeteria stocked marlins, turkeys and actual chains of sausages?)

When Blake swung the chain at me I caught it with one leg and threw the other, nailing her in the face.

I followed it up by surging forward, catching the leg mid-air and wrapping my legs around Blake's head, before leaning back and throwing Blake at Lisica who caught her, and in an odd inversion of the gag, brought Blake's face to the cream pie.

The moment of distraction allowed Ren an opening and a flying kick sent Lisica sailing over our heads toward Sun and Neptune, and out of the fight.

I meanwhile got tray'd by Ruby as she surfed along the tables the second I recovered from the throw and slipped as the ground was suddenly coated in ketchup.

When I picked myself up, the melee had moved back towards the 'castle' somewhat, and Ren was staring me down as I picked myself up.

"man, and I just cleaned this outfit" I complained

Ren raised an eyebrow

"yeah, yeah, all that about getting myself into this mess." I said

I grabbed a baguette and rammed it end to end with another, twisting it and using aura to 'lock' them together, repeating the process until I had crafted a decent-sized baguette spear.

"shall we get this over with?" I asked, adopting a bojitsu stance

Ren produced his leeks with a flourish, spinning them in his hands before assuming a knife-fighting pose.

"this is gonna be interesting" I said

Ren and I clashed, I had the range advantage 90% of the time, even the times where I was forced to scavenge a loaf off my staff because Ren was too close and I didn't want to just kick or throw him.

Ren was fast. Damned fast, but that was to be expected. He was a Dex-Int build after all.

Ren was sneaking around most defences I put up and nailing me in the side or back, which was frustrating. I thought I was screwed when a particularly brutal strike cleaved a loaf in half and I was roundhoused across the face until Ren, in his follow up, tripped over when one of his feet became stuck in taffy.

Seeing my opportunity, I grabbed the first thing I could, which turned out to be a large ham pointed at a spot behind him on the far side of the cafeteria, wound up, and slugged him like Babe Ruth... I didn't know much baseball, not being American, but I recall that being a thing.

I then scavenged for throwables, before leaping above the fray.

"Forget about me?" I asked rhetorically before letting loose with a barrage of everything I'd stashed in my inventory, from leeks to carrots to baguettes, and finished with a watermelon bomb lobbed at Yang... who Nora hit with a golf swing and launched straight through the missile and into me, sending us both through the roof.

We recovered halfway through our flight.

"So... come here often?" I asked jokingly as we extricated ourselves from each other.

"No, just passing through." Yang replied.

"Same here... I might come back again as well, after the fall." I said.

"Was that a pun?"

"Yes?"

"High-five!" Yang said, holding out her hand

An idea occurred to me.

"I have a better idea" I said, before rotating as we fell, planting my boots on Yang's outstretched hand and using it to kick off, leaping downwards and firing myself at the ground at break-neck pace.

I gathered my aura and prepared to land hard.

I flashed through the roof to avoid breaking it more, and landed with meteoric force as I used my aura to shunt as much of my momentum as I could outwards along the ground in a huge ripple.

It was a clumsy effort, and I still heard a sickening crunch noise as my health depleted like crazy, but even then the shockwave upset every table, sent everything and everybody flying and shattered every window in the cafeteria in a good ten meter radius around me. I had been going really fast, and moved a lot of energy.

I stood up and heard a sentence that caused my blood to turn to ice in my veins.

"Weiss? Weiss! Don't Leave me!" Followed by a big "Noooooo!"

I looked for anything to grab onto to avoid the oncoming storm but I was in the middle of a large crater which had left spiderweb cracks in the solid concrete.

I desperately quaffed healing and mana potions so I could at least survive the oncoming storm, since I was super fragile right then. I began running until a red streak blurred past before I had even made it halfway to the edge of the crater.

The wind picked me up and I found myself carried to the far wall by Ruby's jetstream, where all the food in the cafeteria pelted me and Team JNPR.

I didn't so much fall as I peeled myself off the wall and collapsed to the ground.

"I just got myself clean, too." I groaned from my spot on the floor.

My scroll rang, a special ringtone I'd set up for this occasion.

I answered on my earpiece.

When I heard the report, I produced a small 'clapper' detonator and hit the button. A report filed in through the earpiece that pleased me greatly.

I smiled a shit-eating grin as Goodwitch and Ravaora kicked the door in, sorcery and telekinesis active at full bore.

This wouldn't be pleasant in the slightest, but I didn't let that sour my good mood as the room reassembled itself, rubble snapping and flowing back together and reasserting itself back into it's rightful place.

I ran a quick calculation, and counted the seconds...

3... 2... 1...

"DYNAMIC ENTRY!" I shouted on the top of my lungs as Yang crash landed back through the roof and used Goodwithc for a crash mat.

I was mincemeat anyways. If Yang didn't kill me, I was sure Ravaora would for disappearing, but not before Goodwitch could turn my innards into outards... then there was the likes of Coco and Velvet to worry about...

I could take some punishment, but that was more than just pushing it. Time to make like Lanius and legate.

Upon that thought, I used Flash to make myself scarce and teleported instantaneously out of the cafeteria, not stopping until I had achieved sanctuary in my room.

* * *

"What's this I hear about you two getting caught by the authorities on _my_ assignment?" Torchwick asked as Mercury and Emerald walked through the warehouse towards him, covered in bright pink goo.

"I don't know how, but someone knew what was going to happen and rigged a booby trap. As soon as we entered the store a bucket filled with this shit exploded in our faces" Mercury said, futilely attempting to dust his clothes off

"That would explain why you two are covered in pink...stuff... and the traitor?"

"They'd already smuggled him out... left a note as well."

Torchwick snatched the offered piece of paper out of Mercury's hand with his good arm to find a crudely drawn universal rude gesture and several hand scrawled insults, the least profane being a simple "Owned" and the much more worrying "I know who you are"

"Do you think it's the same guy?" Mercury asked.

"I'd say so" Roman said "No one could have possibly known about it, yet he beat us to the punch and made us look like idiots."

"Then I suggest you find him."

Cinder descended from the upper catwalks, much to Emeralds vocalalized delight.

"He's threatening our plans, and, with the traitor gone, there's now an eyewitness leaking details."

"I've checked and checked, but everyone in our little band of merry thieves and murderers has an alibi." Roman complained. "Are you sure you bought out those precogs?"

Cinder sent a withering glare his way before sweeping it over to Mercury and Emerald.

"I thought I told you two to keep your hands clean whilst we were in Vale." Cinder said.

"We're sorry."

"And you." Cinder said, turning to Torchwick. "Pack everything up. We're moving to phase two."

"Already?"

"The enemy knows too much... we need to step up our pace."

* * *

 **"Hello? Department of fuckery? I'd like to file a claim"**

 **yep... Instant Dungeon can be loaded up with a custom module for fun and profit... like that Dungeon Jee-Han kept using in the recent Gamer comics. This system was likely going to be the target for a bunch of mini-crossovers. most would be one-shot affairs, and could range from, say, Vermintide or Left 4 Dead, to Metal Gear (Specifically Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, the only game I played in the series) to The Forest.  
these would likely be entered separate from this main story if I do decide to do them**

 **I have plans, and now Cobalt does too... Tukson's assassination was the only thing I actually disliked about that episode... and Cobalt's looking to defang Cinder, and he's a likely valuable informant.  
so I took a page from the Looney Tunes... then wrote an Angry Marines style note for the lulz.**

 **It's also rather hard to just wedge this organically into a conversation anywhere in the next three chapters so I'll just up and say that Cobalt and Lisica have also been training hard for the past 336 hours (that's 14 days, or two weeks for anyone too lazy to find a calculator), using Instant Dungeon to just grind Grimm in between science projects and renovations  
speaking of, the stronghold has been an idea I wanted to employ since I stumbled across the DLC idea, thanks to Star Wars: The Old Republic... which, like Diablo III improved greatly in the intervening year or so after it's initial release.**


	23. Awesome Skills to pay Big Bills

"Alright, so who will be next?" Goodwitch asked.

"I will, Professor." I said.

Goodwitch raised her eyebrow "Oh? And who will you be challenging today?"

"I've been looking for an opportunity to show off, so I'm going to ask Lisica for a fight"

"I accept." Lisica said.

"Very well, if Lisica and Cobalt Jinn could make their way to the aren-" Goodwitch said, but never finished as we both leapt over the crowd and Flashed into the arena.

There were a few murmurs at that.

Goodwitch saw that we were both ready as we each drew our respective weapons, new ones at that.

Lisica had a pair of gauntlets on her arms, and I had a sword strapped to my waist.

Lisica rammed two sets of three P90-style magazines into the rear of each forearm-guard, and three barrels peeked out from underneath the wrist section... a flick of said wrist produced three wicked-sharp, Wolverine-style claws.

I buried Astartes in the floor next to me, and drew my sword. It was perfectly straight, single edged, pattern-forged in the late anglo-saxon manner; rather than an oriental style, even if the blade itself was an oriental geometry.  
It was designed to be equally good for stabbing or cutting, and with a flick of a switch, I could activate a high-frequency electrical pulse that gave the chokuto enough sundering power to slice through solid steel with only minor difficulties. It was no tank-hunter, but armour would be less of a problem, and it was the one oriental blade that would live up to the legends without lots of alterations.

Lisica's weapons had gotten the same treatment, and even Astarte's blade had been retrofitted with the same tech... which was part of how I'd managed to stab it into the ground.

Unsurprisingly, they followed the same naming scheme as Astartes, being named Militaurm and Raiden, respectively.

For each other's sake, and for the sake of putting on a show, we decided to leave what we'd dubbed the 'HF' functions off. Best not completely empty our bag of tricks... and being able to cut through steel wasn't very useful if we were trying to not horribly maim one another.

Lisica and I charged each other, Raiden meeting Militarum in a quick flurry of blows that rang out across the arena, as we either parried or dodged each lightning-quick blow in rapid succession.  
neither of us were able to get an advantage, so we both broke off the engagement and distanced ourselves to decide this with other methods.

Lisica opened up with Militarum, unleashing the full fury of both her triple-barreled SMGs in my general direction. The fire wasn't very accurate, but the sheer amount of lead flying in my direction was enough to make up for that.

Raiden didn't have a gun, so I dashed around Lisica in a large circle trying to parry shots like crazy with the flat of Raiden. I still got clipped by more than a few bullets, because parrying all the bullets is something I'd need at least twice my dexterity to actually do... and to my embarrassment I managed to deflect a few into myself

I was going to get whittled down if I didn't do something crazy; so I did something crazy. I leapt and brought Raiden overhead; somehow managing to move faster than Lisica could adjust her aim.

In a textbook reaction Lisica parried Raiden to the side with Militarum's left gauntlet before raising the right for a stab into my gut, aura glowing from her arm as she used mana muscles for extra punch.

I cheated and flashed behind her, and brought Raiden around in a horizontal slash, which Lisica also flashed out the way of.

I knew Lisica as going to spray bullets at me from a range again, so I drew the storm bolter and pre-empted her with my own source of dakka, spraying Lisica's position with enough buckshot to bring down a rampaging Ursa

Lisica spun and twirled out the way of the shotgun rounds with as much success as I had earlier (I.e. Limited success) before flashing towards me and attempting to strike at me with the claws.

Lisicia and I exchanged blows again, each strike met with a counterstrike, each move another step in the dance... the style was called the 'dance of death' for a reason, and we were by definition equally good at it.

We moved around the arena a lot, sometimes we'd leap out the way of a strike, other times we managed to slug each other across the arena... one time we were even wrestling... that wasn't part of a style; I'd just spear-tackled her.

Eventually Lisica gained an advantage by using her head... as I recoiled from the headbutt Lisica kicked me across the arena.

When I looked up, her tails were spread out in a five-pointed star configuration and glowing a brilliant blue. I realized immediately that she was warming up for Fox-Fire

I pulled a pair of medium-sized, red dust crystals from my inventory. Not much, but enough that I could resist the attack.

Lisica and I launched our variations on the same attack, and we blasted columns of fire at each other, resulting in a spiraling firestorm

It didn't last long: five seconds, tops; but the entire Colosseum quickly rose in temperature as Lisica and I tried to shift more power into our attack than the other.

Alas, we were evenly matched by definition, and neither could gain the upper hand.

I stopped firing first, having run out of dust, but a quick aura-technique, running on as much instinct as any real knowledge, saw the flames get caught in a swirling eddy around the sword, resulting in a glowing tornado of fire that I was careful to limit so it wouldn't destroy the temper on the steel like my last sword.

I ran through the glowing blast-zone, holding Raiden in front of me as the blade drank in the flames like water down a sink.

Lisica barely managed to block the first strike from my flaming sword, setting a precedent that continued throughout the rapid-fire exchange. I was really giving it my all, and had saved some small modicum of my mana for this.

As always it was a dance as we exchanged blows, with all sorts of spins, twirls, rhythmic blows and generally more movement than was needed, but it was ultimately hard to follow (hopefully) and I could see Lisica was feeling the heat, even given the cheat's guide of being in my head, and our dangersense skill... which was honestly how she'd kept up for so long.

Lisica had finished early, but I still had steam to burn, and Lisica couldn't keep up with the ferocity of my strikes.

A quick jump backwards bought me some space where I performed an over-exaggerated mock-Iaido strike which flicked the flames off my sword in an ever-expanding wave of flame at Lisica, who fell backwards trying to dodge.

With her grav-belt, it was child's play to turn even that stumble into a graceful flip backwards, and even make it look intentional, but as soon as her feet touched ground, she was forced to jerk her head back as Raiden was thrust mere inches from her throat.

"The winner is... Cobalt Jinn." Goodwitch said.

I flicked my sword to my side with a flourish before sheathing it.

I grasped Lisica hand with my own, both of us wearing fierce grins. A warrior's handshake.

"Good fight."

"Shame we couldn't work in the roof or wall running, that would've been awesome." Lisica said

"Another time, then." I replied.

I leapt backwards and ran up, where Lisica boosted me over the forcefields and I promptly flashed back to my seat, quaffing a mana potion as I did.

I looked at some of the stares sent my way.

"What?" I asked, unable to keep the grin off my face

* * *

"What the hell was that? Where did all that come from?" Weiss demanded as we both exited Goodwitch's classroom

"What?" I asked

"Last term you were barely passable for a Beacon initiate, now you're..."

"What?"

"This." Blake said, holding up her scroll.

On it was my fight, the exchanges difficult for the camera to follow let alone an unenhanced eye.

"Oh that... I don't actually need to sleep or eat, and I can produce an 'instant dungeon', which is a pocket dimension that constantly spawns Grimm at you, among other things. I spent close to... 336 hours straight training every weapon and combat skill Liz and I could get our hands on." I said running some mental arithmetic.

"That can't be healthy" Blake said.

"With the amount of health potions I drank, I either have cancer or the best health possible, period, and I made sure I to check for cancer." I snarked

"You can teleport" Jaune said "when did you learn to do that?"

"that? That's a skill called Flash. I got it last term at the docks. One of the henchmen dropped it... not sure why she had it, but I'm not one to complain... also, I hit level 40 over the holidays, so Liz has got a new tail and with it, a new power: Illusions"

Lisica was standing amongst five clones of herself, and all six simultaneously said "like this."

"They're fragile though." I added, patting one on the shoulder and causing it to disappear "We've also discovered that her shapeshifting capabilities have been expanded immensely"

Lisica dismissed her clones, stood straighter, and then transformed into a mirror image of Goodwitch.

"I am going to have so much fun with this... the efficacy of the disguise is, as always, determined by one's acting skills, but that skill's coming along nicely." I said.

"fun... disguised as Professor Goodwitch?" Weiss asked

"Not just her" Lisica said as she shifted through the many faces of RWBY and JNPR, much to their protest.

"I think you got Yang's bust size wrong." I commented.

Liz changed back to Yang and cycled breast sizes until she was sure she had gotten it perfect.

"I'd make a joke about wanting a camera, but I'm afraid Yang'd punch me into last week if I did." I joked. "Instead I'll settle for 'Ain't that a sight you'll never forget'."

I drank in the sounds of Yang and Weiss's outraged sputtering.

"Of course, my sense of self-preservation is tingling, so I must be off." I said before flashing out.

Lisica reverted to her normal form.

"I'd recommend some sort of callsign or codeword that lets you know if it's me or not. Don't tell me, don't let me know... maybe figure out a rotation as well just in case I figure it out. Try disguising it as a nickname or a verbal tic." She said before disappearing as well

* * *

 _'Well, now it's a lot harder for Neo to impersonate one of us.' Cobalt think-said._

'A _silver lining to every cloud.' Lisica replied._

I was interrupted from my thoughts by my scroll ringing.

"Cobalt Jinn speaking, how may I help you?"

"Ah, excellent, Penny said you wished to talk to me?"

"Oh, Professor Polendia, hold up whilst I ensure some privacy." I said.

I flashed to a quiet and secluded area on the edge of Beacon School Grounds.

Once the static cleared as the CCT re-located me I resumed the conversation.

"Right, so... Professor Polendia, I need you to hold what I am about to tell you in the highest confidentiality even from Ironwood. I'm about to explain why I need to know how Penny's artificial soul came about."

* * *

"What'cha thinking about Cinder?" Emerald asked.

"You both remember that fight between Cobalt and Lisica?" Cinder asked.

"Who could forget it? Dude's got some crazy moves." Mercury said.

"During the fight, every time Cobalt used his aura I sensed something... odd about it." Cinder said.

"Odd? Odd how?" Emerald asked.

"like... Grimm, almost. Not to mention how similar both Cobalt and Lisica's aura were."

"I noticed that too... but it's not like they're related."

"No, even in identical twins there are some minor differences to differentiate the two." Cinder said. "This was something else, it's too similar, even for that... keep an eye on Cobalt, and his 'sister'. Those two have a story to tell, and I want to know what."

"Yes Cinder."

* * *

 **One thing I've noticed that people missed was when Cobalt unlocked his aura, it ran greasy black before adopting his signature colour.**  
 **Like that old Terran saying: "we all have our own personal demons."**

 **yeah, that's going to make a surfacing soon.  
**

 **thanks once again for reading this, and sticking with me.  
don't forget to let me know what you think with reviews and subscriptions. Us writer-folk are like vampires, but for feedback rather than blood.**

 **and yeah, sorry, I totally forgot about posting this until the day after... I blame Fallout 4. Ever since I finally got my brand new Gaming PC up and running in early January (After two months of issues, until someone pointed out that we needed to update the motherboard firmware) it's been almost impossible to drag myself away long enough to do anything meaningful, and it just chews through hours at a time...  
It doesn't help that progress on the latest bunch of chapters have been brought to a snail pace by writers block, so enthusiasm for the story's at a bit of a low.**


	24. The Devil-Girl's Due

"So, Raven, mind telling me what you can do? Like, I get that you're handy in a fight, but how so?" I asked.

"I'm a warlock." Raven replied.

"I get that, and I know Warlock generally means "Evil Wizard" -which in your case may be a bit of a misleading title- I was asking what kinds of spells you might know and if I can add to that repertoire, or if you can teach me." I said.

"Why should I tell you?"

"I'm not asking you to tell me. The Echani believe you can find the true measure of a person by facing them in the dueling ring, in sparring matches and the like. Perhaps you and I could have something of a Wizard's spar?" I said. "All my magic's sub-par, especially for my level."

Ravaora narrowed her eyes at me.

"I'm not going to lie, shit's going to hit the fan in the next few weeks... and so far as the guy you're apprenticed to, I haven't done much to show or teach or train you to do anything... which is mostly my fault. I'm trying to change that, and see what kind of hurt we can put on someone with you around, and get a baseline so we can show you this or that and not overlap on what you already know."

Ravaora regarded me for a moment.

"Fine." She said.

"Excellent... first off, a quick change." I said "We'll need to awaken your aura."

"You showed me that earlier, I was wondering why you hadn't done anything with it"

"If you would give me your hands, we can begin." I said, dodging the question

Ravaora reluctantly let me grab her hands and I recited what I could only assume was a prayer.

" _...For it is in passing that we achieve immortality. Through this, we become a paragon of virtue and glory to rise above all. Infinite in distance and unbound by death, I release your soul, and by my shoulder, protect thee_."

As I did so I reached towards Ravaora's soul with my own aura in a process guided more by informed guesswork and instinct than any actual knowledge of my own awakening. As soon as I made contact I felt my own aura draining like water down the kitchen sink until some unbidden instinct had me 'pulling'.

I eventually felt something crack, like a shell, before reeling back as the figurative lid on Ravaora's power came undone.

I flinched and opened my eyes which I'd shut during the process to see Ravaora glowing a burnt orange colour, which segued into red as it got higher... it actually looked like a flame if you squinted a bit. Likely a sign of her contract with a Pit Fiend.

"This feels... strange... different to when I made my pact." Ravaora said.

"It's your soul, awoken and worn on your sleeve like everyone else here." I said, actually panting. "It's a euphoric sort of energy, isn't it? A grand upwelling of light through your whole being... and fuck, am I tired..."

"That was your first time doing that, wasn't it?" Ozpin asked from behind me.

"Yes, yes it was..." I said, trying to shake off the tiredness.

"Aurum told me you might do this today, and asked me to give you this, as she was busy herself."

Ozpin held out a scroll for me.

I pulled it open and read the glyph on the parchment. The weight in my pocket told me it was another module for Instant Dungeon

 _ **New ID Module unlocked: The Dojo**_

"I'm beginning to think that Aurum's getting scary good at anticipating my needs right when I need something. I was going to wait until combat class, or for the arena to be empty... with this, we can have that mage-duel now."

I noticed Ravaora wasn't paying me any attention, instead rifling through her spellbook.

"What's up, Raven?" I asked.

"This... My spell book is different." She said, confusion and fear evident in her voice.

"what do you mean, 'different'?" I asked, suddenly very nervous.

"All the spells... did they morph into psionics?"

"Psionic- Point cost! Of course, in your realm, mages can only cast a spell a set number of times a day, right? Here, I can cast all day long so long as I have some 'juice' in the tank." I said. "Do you have something simple? Non-lethal preferred but I can tank a shot or two if need be."

 _"Thaumaturgy._ " Ravaora said, and I immediately heard the distinct sound of a raven cawing.

"Did that consume the spell?" I asked.

"No..." Ravaora said, before checking her scroll, the electronic one, as I observed her.

Sure enough, both of us could confirm that her aura had dropped a small amount. Only a handful of points at most.

"Now then, I think, with that bombshell, it's time for both of us to make our way to the Dojo."

I cast instant dungeon and immediately the scenery blurred and changed to that of a Japanese dojo. We were in the courtyard out the front, surrounded by verandas backed by paper walls on three sides and with a cherry blossom situated in the exit.

"Well, this is certainly rather scenic... a shame we'll likely level it with a few more levels in badass... or once we figure out the whole exploding laser beams thing." I quipped.

"Whatever, let's make this quick." Ravaora sighed.

"A'ight, first one to deplete their aura loses." I replied as I set up a duel request.

Ravaora accepted and we both took positions at either end of the Dojo's courtyard.

Ravaora's opening move was a crossbow bolt aimed at my head.

I dodged backwards like in the matrix and came back up to see Ravaora dropping a goatsfoot, a lever used to reload light crossbows easily, and reaching for another quarrel.

I interrupted her with an energy bolt.

"Now that wasn't very sporting. I did say this was to be a wizard's duel." I said.

Ravaora growled in response. Her hand dropped to her pouch and brought out a twig, pointing at me and launching a lightning bolt in my direction.

That was not fun... but it gave me ideas.

I channelled aura to my arm and felt it settle into the ol' mana muscles. I shook my head and redid it, instead firing up my nervous system.

 _ **Through a Special Action, the skill Haste has been created**_

Awesome, just not what I was looking for.

I refocused onto just my arm, feeling the bioelectric nerve impulses as they travelled up and down my nervous system, and I felt serious potential build as I focused my aura on them, specifically.

I stood back up and climbed out of the wreckage I'd created with my dynamic entry. I swung my arm forth and hurled a streamer of aura which the amplified nerve impulse gladly conducted itself down.

In layman's terms, I made lightning jump from my fingers to a destination I chose.

 _ **Through a Special Action, the skill Bio-Lightning has been created.**_

I'd read up on psychic powers in my brief attempt to play roleplaying games, and biomancy, or body magic had really stood out to me. Forcing wounds to close at will and hurling bioelectric bolts of lightning whilst simultaneously punching like an Ogre on steroids using nothing but raw willpower was just too appealing.

Ravaora pulled herself out of the wreckage, slightly worse for wear, and with a snarl and a thrust of her hand, I was flat arsed by a beam of crackling energy.

"Ow, what the fuck was that?" I asked. "That wasn't disintegration or something, was it?"

"Eldritch Blast." Ravaora supplied.

"Any side effects I should watch out for? Sanity damage or whatnot?" I asked.

"Just force damage" Ravaora supplied, before hitting me with another Eldritch blast.

The damage was starting to pile up, so I retaliated with a series of energy bolts and-

Man, those remind me of soul arrows from... idea time.

I held an energy bolt in my hand pumping it with more 'fuel' before sharpening it into a point and setting it into a spin. With a flick of my wrist and will, the revamped energy bolt took up large chunks of the floor behind Ravaora who dodged just in time.

 _ **Through a Special Action, the skill Soul Spear has been created.**_

Oh lawdy was I loving this.

"I gotta thank you for this Raven. Thanks to you, I've just developed three new spells."

Ravaora's 'reply' came in the form of a translucent, ghostly hand latching itself to my face which caused an immediate sensation of bone-deep sheer cold.

If I hadn't been a Gamer, I'd have flipped my lid right there and then, panicking about the ghost hand on my face. Instead I just blind-fired energy bolts until the hand went away six seconds later.

"That was an interesting one, I have to say." I said.

In rapid succession I tanked another lightning bolt, followed by dodging around another three eldritch bolts.

"Careful with your aura. The loser _is_ the first person to run out and leave themselves vulnerable to physical damage, and we're both exhausting it to continue casting." I warned Ravaora.

Ravaora spared a glance at her scroll and saw that she was indeed running low.

"And now, on that realization, here's another: I still got half a tank, and it's my turn now." I said, gathering energy bolts in my hands.

"Macrosse! Missile! MASSACRE!" I shouted, before blanketing Ravaora and the section of the Dojo she was in with brilliant streamers of light that each struck like a fist-sized arrow.

It drained my aura to par with Ravaora's.

Yet the duel didn't end, which meant that somehow Ravaora had survived, probably by moving out of the opening that was her point of egress into the Dojo's interior... should have thought of that... but Soul Spears were expensive, even if they were like canon-shots.

I couldn't see very well, what with the scorches from the energy bolts setting the paper-and-wood construction on fire and sending smoke flying everywhere.

I didn't expect the lightning spell again, flashing through the smoke and scoring off the last few points of my aura and ending the duel.

"Ah crap... you got me." I said from my position on the floor.

Ravaora snorted as she climbed through the burning debris, her infernal legacy protecting her from the flames.

I kicked myself upright and quaffed a mana potion whilst simultaneously handing one to Ravaora.

"Good hustle... those bolts sting like a bitch, even with Aura." I complimented. "Though how did you cast without spending aura?"

"I consumed the spell."

"What do you- OH! You're still on daily spells, just aura lets you not consume the spell... you can flash-create a new spell out of one you've got prepared and a bunch of aura... If I didn't know any better, I'd say that's a semblance." I said.

"What is Semblance?"

"oh, Right, I probably should have explained earlier, it's a special ability unique to the soul... Like my gamer thing, or Ruby's speed, or Weiss' Glyphs." I said. "It's the closest thing these guys get to magic more often than not... speaking of Gamer, did you level up?"

"I- yes, actually." Ravaora said. "I'm level two now."

"Two- holy shit. Alright, tonight we are taking you out and burning down the Not-Emerald Forest... especially with the magical clout you just... get right off the bat." I said.

"And what makes you think I would want to do that?" Ravaora asked pointedly.

"One: no need for the hostility; I've had ample opportunity to stick a knife in your back if I was at all inclined. Secondly: I jumped nearly twenty levels the last time I went out killing in the Emerald Forest... though I suspect your progression will be much slower, you'll be able to take on hunters by the time we're done."

"Oh... okay then."

* * *

 _ **Later That Night**_

* * *

I released Ravaora's hands and felt Lisica extricate herself from my inventory.

"Did you cast the spell at all?" Ravaora asked.

"Yeah, I cast the spell. I didn't load a module though, so we got a bog-standard Instant Dungeon, which is just the dungeon overlaid over reality. All the items and structures are still here, but the people are gone... y'know what they say, all adventuring tends to start around home."

"They don't say that." Ravaora said. "But you do have a point."

"Hyperbole, Raven." I said walking to Beacon's front entrance.

"Where are you going? The Grimm are out in the forest!" Ravaora shouted after me.

I kicked Beacon's front door in and was rewarded by a creep attempting to maul me.

It was briefly pinned to the floor by Astartes being rammed through its head from above as I twisted out the way.

The creep twitched as electricity pulsed through its corpse until I yanked my spear free.

"Thar be Grimm." I summarized, eschewing the lengthy exposition dump I was becoming increasingly aware of -and adverse to- and bull-rushed the first room.

Ravaora blinked in my general direction, hefted her crossbow and tentatively followed my charge.

* * *

Ravaora impressed me with her preparedness as we roasted marshmallows over the small campfire we'd constructed in Goodwitch's office.

Time moved slower in this instant dungeon, so even with several breaks to rest up as our MP recovered in freshly cleared rooms I wasn't worried.

I was concerned that Ravaora was getting one tenth the experience I got when I was her level, but that was the start and end of my concerns as I bussed her along.

Ravaora was holding her own admirably thanks to moving off the spells per day system, and that crossbow was lethal otherwise... especially once I'd stolen it to make upgrades, modernising it with compound materials and pulleys, and adding a chu-ko-nu style ammo-box/arming lever and power bayonet to increase functionality and firing speed.

It wasn't the Van Helsing bow, but it was a lot more plausible design, seeing as the Chu-Ko-Nu was an actual repeating crossbow the chinese used ages ago. A little accuracy in exchange for so much speed was a godsend in these tight corridors... I'd even taped a laser pointer to the side for better hip-fire accuracy.

After a quick demo, she'd taken to it like a fish to water... and had mowed down entire rooms in a hailstorm of bolts of both the mundane and physical varieties... it had meant a bit of time wasted with recovery, but that was the beauty of winning engagements with bows and crossbow: the ammo was generally reusable... that is, without dust warheads on them... I should look into that.

"So, Lisica, where haven't we been yet?" I asked.

"One place" Lisica said.

"Oh?"

"Looks like the boss room is the... boss's room."

"Ozpin's Office?"

"Yep."

I checked our mana levels.

"Let's get this over with." I said, handing out a trio of mana potions.

* * *

I raised my foot to the lock and kicked down both doors to Ozpin' office, knocking them off their hinges.

Sitting there was a figure clad with a black cloak that concealed the face, save for the red eyes glowing at us underneath, and the visible white gears in the 'body' portion of the cloak.

The creature was legless and floated above the ground, it's torso was merely a collection of clockwork-looking mechanisms (I would bet my right nut that it only looked mechanical) and in it's black hands was a large scythe with a bone-white blade and a large, red-patterned gear across the 'elbow'

 **Clockwork Golem**  
 **Lvl 90 Grimm**

"Figures that the monster inhabiting Ozpin's room is clockwork." I remarked "What else could it be"

"Just shut up and start shooting" Lisica shouted at me, simultaneously bringing the Exitus rifle to bear.

I'd thankfully remembered to stock up on regular rounds in addition to the game-breaking shell-breakers.

The first round hammered into the Golem, slamming it into the wall, and a quick rack of the bolt preceded the second round breaking the glass behind it, flinging the hovering death impersonator out into the empty space behind.

Both bit off sizeable chunks of health, as did the fall. The Exitus was no joke, just a whisper-quiet Fuck You

I walked to the edge and peered down at the golem.

Level 90... it would take a concerted team effort to bring this thing down, and I was in no mood for that.

I reaching into my inventory and grabbed my latest import, from the world of Fallout. I dropped the football-sized device on top of the Grimm and donned my sunglasses as the wind produced a distinctive whistle as it filtered through the square tailfins.

I leaned down and whispered "tunnel snakes rule" as I watched the mushroom cloud rise towards me.

Because when you can't kill it with fire, you should always nuke it from orbit... it's the only way to be sure... and Mini-Nukes were made for Behemoths and Deathclaws... maybe not specifically, but enemies of that calibre.

References aside, Liz and I had dished up some beastly damage in the opening moves of the match.

I didn't expect that to have killed the beast. The golem would have to be completely gimped for that to have been a possibility.

But that said, the observe I fired off after the fire and smoke began to clear told me two things; 1: I'd managed to blast off a whole third of its health by hitting it like that... and 2: that it had a ranged attack in the form of its scythe straightening out and stretching like Goku's power staff, ramming it's blade into my foot and destroying the ground beneath it.

Har, har, the scythe from Danté's inferno. Fuck you too.

Thanks to aura I tanked the shot, which did only medium damage, but I was knocked off-balance and eventually careening over the edge, which meant I was sailing straight at it, just like the bomb

Son. Of. A. Bitch.

I righted myself mid-air and landed on my feet with a quick burst of anti-grav. It would've been totally intimidating if my opponent wasn't a Grimm.

I told Lisica to make her way down here fast via thought-speak, because I could already tell that this was _not_ going to be a fun fight.

I hefted Astartes and adopted a ready stance.

The Golem hissed like steam escaping a pipe...

I smiled whilst I still could and mentally prepared myself for a number of painful injuries. I was suddenly very glad I'd dropped the bomb earlier.

* * *

 **Okay, some revisions here, and an uplifting primer from one of my Betas (thanks for that by the way... I don't know which of you it is, there's like, 3 of you (for safety reasons in case one of you calls in sick) and there wasn't a name) and I'm feeling pretty accomplished with myself for all this progress.**

 **I still feel Lisica and Velvet don't get enough lines, or most of RWBY and JNPR for that matter, but I'm working on that with every available scene.**

 **I honestly still feel like I'm the story-writer for Sword Art Online, except Cobalt's an sort-of asshole, lacks a harem, and people know what to expect... which honestly fixes maybe 60% of the issues with SAO... and I have humour and spectacle to make up for the rest... and I was never going to produce Mass Effect or even One Punch Man tier-writing, so I should shut my dirty damned mouth...**

 **Anywho, a big thanks to all of you, for your support and your time. I wouldn't be able to do this without you. Without you, I wouldn't be able to say "fuck it, I'll write some more."**


	25. Lost relic hidden dumbass

**Now then, a fan of the series with whom I have had correspondence with, Yukicrewger2, added their own little contribution to Gaming for Glory... unfortunately, this boss battle dragged on into two chapters before I could write it in. So, for them, I'm treating the lot of you to a double feature this week.**

 **My apologies to my Betas for breaking schedule again. Your job's already tough enough.**

* * *

"Y'know, I can't believe I haven't tried cooking until now. It's not that I can't or anything, in fact I'm perfectly decent at cooking... I suppose when you get meals provided for you..." I mused as I checked in on the lasagne.

"Get back to the story." Nora whined.

"Oh, sorry, I got a bit side tracked... do you prefer spicy or mild tacos?" I asked.

"Spicy."

"Right-o... anywho, big, gnarly grimm, lots of cogs, and I'd given it a three-punch combo from some of my most powerful weapons before being dragged down for a big fight" I recounted, glancing at the photo evidence we'd lifted from school security on the other side that Lisica was presenting in a slideshow

* * *

The Grimm and I moved around one-another, not letting up at each other as Astartes crossed with the Grimm's weapon in rapid succession.

A Vault backwards allowed me to fling a bolt of lightning at the thing.

I noted with dread as I saw the attack deal negative damage (healing the thing) and caused it to emit a large cloud of steam, obscuring my vision like a smokescreen.

I let loose with a blind-fire from the Storm Bolter, before feeling the wind driven from my lungs as the back end of the creature's scythe blasted into my stomach.

I was propelled across the courtyard and a hefty chunk of MP was sacrificed to keep my health safe.

Note to self: Stay out of melee range.

It was obvious it was a melee monster from the start, but that was just a tad excessive, and that was coming from someone who basically ignored that word in his dictionary.

That spear-extension thing wasn't anywhere near as damaging (probably scaled off a different stat) and I had a reasonable expectation of dodging or parrying it.

So I'd have to kite like crazy until Lisica and Ravaora managed to get down here... which, given that Lisica had Ravaora in a bridal carry and was running for the edge, wouldn't be long.

Anti-Grav really helped with multi-person drops.

The Golem moved -fast- and slammed it's scythe where I had been standing until I'd flashed out of the way.

I quaffed a mana potion and spun up a pair of Soul Spears.

* * *

"Wait, what?"

"Raven helped me develop a few new spells based on old ones and theoretical work." I answered.

"Soul spears?"

"I'm gathering light into a massive, spiralling spike made of aura... considering aura is the light of the soul... and it was named after a soul-based spell I saw in a game once." I said.

"You can do that?"

"I can do shitloads with my aura. I just need to funnel it in the right way... it helps if I've got some indicators as to what I need to do to create a specific effect, like shaping it, or making it spin."

"Get back to the story!" Nora demanded.

"Right, so I basically teleported around a bunch, keeping out the way and launching as many ranged attacks as I could fit in... I mean, who wouldn't? The thing hit harder than Nora after a visit to the tesla Coil factory"

* * *

I ducked under another swing and with the power of me and my magic lightning hands I retaliated...

I then remembered that that had the opposite effect to the one I had intended.

I quickly sprayed it with Bolts (the explosive micro-rocket kind) in an attempt to make up for it... this was exactly the kind of foe I had designed the bullets to take care of.

The heavy ordinance gave it pause which I followed up with an attack from the deactivated power-bayonet I'd welded to the front before I flashed out.

The creature 'screamed' at me with that piercing steam whistle and reared back for another strike.

Lisica punched it from behind, and a quick reaction allowed me to give it a sky uppercut.

Ravaora unleashed Eldritch bolts in rapid fashion at the creature, most of them hitting as Lisica and I unleashed with our guns.

I quaffed a healing potion, and a mana one for good measure, and noticed my stock was running low.

I made a mental note to look into finding a recipe and growing the appropriate herbs and ingredients to make more... maybe start up a hydroponics lab...

But that was later. I had to win this fight first.

I hefted Astartes and got ready. This wouldn't a pleasant-

I was broken out of my thoughts with a scythe bearing for my head, which was blocked by Astartes, which I braced against the ground and followed up by a draw-cut from Raiden as the Grimm got closer. Ask any good spearman, back on earth, and they'll tell you to keep a one-handed sword for when enemies got inside spear-range... plus, say whatever you will about how shitty they are, Katanas are cool swords.

I sheathed Raiden again, since Astartes was nigh impossible to use one-handed (I wasn't exactly Lu Bu here, nor did Astarte's posses the weight of his halberd) and stepped back.

Lisica, Ravaora and I each took turns wailing on the thing, one of us was always keeping it distracted whilst another of us charged up some barrage or blast and another recovered and ran damage control.

It was a decent test of our ability to work together for sure.

This wasn't the tightly synchronized movements of Lisica and I dancing back to back against a numerically superior foe, but the loosely defined formations and roles of a MMO raid where everyone kinda did their own thing.

Lisica and I were constantly moving, using our, frankly, amazing speed, strength and thinking abilities to stay an entire voidwhale ahead of it and well out of reach, excepting the cases where the Golem targeted Ravaora, which meant we had to engage it straight up so Raven could re-locate somewhere safer.

We hit the beast with everything, and only succeeded in some elemental damage and setting it on fire. Even with the creature on fire, we still had to fight long enough for all of us to be thoroughly sick of this thing.

We weren't even sure who killed it, but when the Clockwork steam-monster lost pressure it was met with a weary cheer.

* * *

"So... Yeah, I kinda harassed it to death." I said.

"So why did you need us again?" Ruby asked.

"Because that's not quite the end of the story." I said.

* * *

"What the- what the fuck is this thing?" I said as I rifled through the loot

I held up a small, tar-black ball of what appeared to be a cold fire.

"a Gaean Legacy?" I asked firing off an observe

 _ **Gaean Legacy  
**_ _ **Awarded by Gaea to those who perform valorous feats, these glowing balls hold a stunning abundance powerful and rare energies**_ _ **Can be used to revive a chapter of legendary times, and grant strange and unusual effects to the item the legacy is applied to.**_ _ **  
**_

I whistled at the description as Lisica relayed it to Ravaora

I did what came naturally, as always, and applied it to my spear.

...of course, by strange and usual effects, I didn't realize it meant "my spear will light up like the sun before disappearing suddenly"

"Son of a bit- MY SPEAR!" I shouted "WHY!? I PUT SO MANY HOURS INTO MAKING AND DESIGNING THAT FUCKER! GIVE IT BACK!"

Lisica let me rant for a few moments before tapping my shoulder and indicating the new quest that had appeared.

 _ **The Great Crusade**_

 _ **Locate the pieces of Astartes, held by powerful Grimm**_  
 _ **-Defeat the Deathclaw at the bottom of the Forest Cave to get the body**_  
 _ **-Defeat the Raptor Queen in the Great Plains Nest to get the blade**_  
 _ **-Defeat the Salamander in the Forever Fall Dungeon to get the mechanism**_

 _ **Reassemble Astartes**_

 _ **Reward: 50,000xp, Astartes (Legendary)**_

* * *

"A what did what?!" Ruby asked.

"Yep... so here I am, trying to convince you and your highly-skilled group of leg-beakers to help me out" I said, pulling the first lasagne out the oven.

Nora perked up visibly at that.

"Leg-breaking?"

"I need three specific enemies killed untill they're dead" I explained. "After food, of course. This is my first time flying solo on this recipe, so I want to see how it went."

"A Raptor Queen, a Deathstalker, and a Salamander?" Weiss asked.

"Eeyup; that's the long and short of it" I said.

"You're insane, right? Those are Grimm experienced Hunters have difficulty with." Weiss asked.

"I sometimes sit alone and wonder every now and then... but yeah. I'm looking to get my spear back, and there will be fun, fights, training, puzzles, and sweet, succulent Loot... I'd be happy to hand each of you a share in the loot." I said. "Money, Dust, and I'd put good Lien on the chances of rare and exotic artefacts... I still have a winding horn made from the horn of a large Tauros Port had me fight."

I produced said horn just to show I did indeed still possess the aforementioned artefact.

"I'll do it."

I peered across the crowd to see Jaune was the one who had spoken.

"Not to doubt you or anything, but just so you know: you'll be risking life and limb on what most would call a fool's errand." I said.

"You helped me out last term, and now you've come asking for our help." Jaune replied. "I kinda owe you for that."

"Thanks man. It means a lot to me that you'd do this." I said.

"If Jaune's going, so am I." Pyrrha said.

"Can I count on the rest of your team?" I asked, sending a glance to Nora.

"Yessir Mr. General, Sir!" Nora exclaimed.

"Someone has to keep Nora out of trouble." Ren added.

"Well, we're supposed to make decisions as a team," Ruby said, "so let's put it to a vote. I vote we help Cobalt get his weapon back. What would you guys do if Myrtenaster or Ember Celica went missing?"

"Y'know, when you put it like that... Alright, I'm in." Blake said.

"Same here. I don't know what I'd do if my babies went missing." Yang said.

"Damn, now I wish I'd baked a cake and not just dinner." I joked "this means a lot to me, thanks guys."

"Alright... I'm only going along because everyone seems all wept up in this madness. I hope you don't make a habit of getting us to clean up after your mistakes." Weiss said.

I drew Raiden from my inventory and activated the power module, making the bald crackle with electricity.

"I do try to own up to my fuckups, but I'm not stupid enough to assume I can clean this mess up on my own. I need extra hands and to make this thing a series of raids. We'll tackle each fight, one after another, everyone across both teams working together."

"That's awesome, but we've already got plans."

"plans?"

* * *

 **Elsewhere**

* * *

"Uh-um... s-sir?"

"Report." Adam said into the telephone on his desk.

"About our latest shipment... It's gone." The grunt squeaked out.

"What?!"

"We were going to move some of the goods when it became apparent they were missing."

"There were eight shipping containers of Dust, and you tell me they went missing?!" Adam demanded.

"Not the containers... just the dust."

"That's several tonnes of refined dust, and you mean to tell me it just went missing? No one saw anything?" Adam demanded.

There was an almost deafening silence in the room.

"...Yes?"

"find it, or you'll have to personally explain to Cinder why her dust isn't coming" Adam said before hanging up

"That's the third one this month." Adam's Lieutenant noted from beside him.

"The worst part is that Cinder isn't going to like this." Adam noted. "Damned human. Why couldn't she choose someone else?"

* * *

 **Okay... so... This chapter really didn't want to be written. Every time I sat down and tried to write this, I immediately started drawing blanks.**

 **Which is why the Clockwork Golem fight is so... underwhelming. Like, I could break this down into a play-by-play, true, but honestly, the fight, as it happens in my head, is that shameless thing that Dex Classes do when they meet a powerful opponent oriented around Melee that would destroy them if they ever got within arms reach: Kite that motherfucker and bury him under ordinance.**

 **And I'd rather not write four pages of "and the golem almost got within striking distance, but Cobalt/Lisica teleported away because 'lolfuckyou'.", and I'm like, 70% sure you probably don't want to read that either... then again, you've read and enjoyed everything else up until now.**  
 **Who knows.**  
 **And I understand: all that shit about "showing, not telling", but Showing just killed the flow of creative juices every time without fail.**

 **Review** **From: Guest  
** _ **"I can't help but think you are stalling until you find out what Velvet's weapon is. Then you can make more fights with her in them."**_ **  
**

 **Firstly, I would appreciate Guest Reviewers signing in/up. It gives me a name to use so I can credit you with a good question in these footnotes, and a way to reply and answer said questions personally if you just need something clarified, so long as it isn't classified.**

 **As for your question: You would be correct.  
So far I'm thinking it's got to do with her camera and photography; b** **ut I don't want to assume or create something, write it up, post the chapter, and immediately get contradicted by Roosterteeth when they come out with what Velvet's weapon/semblance is.**  
 **Because, for everything, Gaming for Glory is intended to go only somewhat off the rails until the Vytal Festival, when Cobalt springs his counter-trap... as a sort of literary scaffold, because a lot of my freehand work earlier was... less than stellar in my honest opinion.  
** **Long Story Short: they weren't so much stories as long-winded meanderings of various ideas and concepts within the context of the setting.** **  
**


	26. Gifts, reassurances, and investigations

Ah, stranger, I was wonderin' when you were coming. I have a package for you. It would seem you've been getting some dedicated fans back on Terra."

"...What?"

The Merchant hefted a large and heavy-looking backpack onto the table in the little back alley I had found him in.

"I- wha?" I said, just generally failing to process things before opening the backpack and emptying the contents onto the table, laying it all out before me

My Semblance identified what I could only describe as a legendary blacksmith's wetdream.

The first things to catch my attention were several large and heavy ingots of both Adamantium and Mithril.

next were the books. The first two were manuals on how to properly forge both mythical metals inf ront of me, and another manual detailing the proper tempering methods that would result in the Mithril becoming the more magically-reactive Orichalcum… and when I say "magically reactive", I mean "room-temperature superconductor for mana"

Next up was a tome containing lists of runewords, their effects, and their rough translations, in addition to a number of incredibly fine, specialized chisels for engraving them into hardened metals.

Lastly, in a large, padded, metal box was a fist-sized sphere that was a marbled a brilliant, crystal clear sapphire-blue and solid cerulean blue, in a pattern reminiscent of smoke in a crystal ball or clouds against a stormy sky

"Dat's a marbled gem! Tha' solid bits are Blue Jade, a powerful magical batt'ry, and the clear ones are a bloody high-grade sapphire, you could cut that beauty down and make one heckuva magical focus and amplifier with that thing... they're supposed ta be really rare... almost enough to go one-to-one with your Dust crystals." The Merchant said, surprise and no small bit of admiration in his voice.

"W-w-who sent this?" I asked, my voice wobbling in pure awe at this immeasurably valuable gift.

"Wot?"

"Did some kind of Dwarf-God send me this? Which Hold-King do I owe a massive favour to? This shit's available in only two places in all of mythology: at the bottom of a Dwarf's Mine, or Atlantis." I said

"I dunno. Said they're from Terra -Your Terra-. My guess is he's an Alpha Tester who spent some time in Middle Earth." The Merchant said.

"Or the fucking Age of Mythology." I joked.

"heh, tha' too."

"so… I have an unbreakable metal, and the metal just one step behind that with magical properties just short of cheating… and enough to make a few decent blades out of it as well…" I mused

"do you happen to stock this stuff normally? there's… what? 50 kilograms of adamantium, and a similar volume of Mithril… and swords typically take up two to three... which gives me about 20 regular swords worth of metal... less if I want to go crazy or make armour" I asked

"Oi've provided every other insane request you've made of me, stranger. Acquiring rare metals is cakewalk compared ta some of the places we've had to raid on your behalf." The Merchant replied "Albiet, it'll cost you. Our reliable sources on those metals are rather notoriously stingy, and hirin' adventurers ta work the mines is expensive."

"Ah, fair enough… We'll talk later if I decide I want invincible armour or something… meanwhile, I've been meaning to ask about this one gun I saw on display this one time..."

* * *

"...And fine? That's just not good enough." Holo-Ironwood said. "Presenting the Atlesian Knight-200."

I gave an amused snort.

"Smarter, sleeker, and admittedly a little less scary, these models will become active out a little later this year; but they won't be alone." Ironwood continued

 _"Not that anyone who mattered was scared of the old models."_ I thought, but wisely kept my mouth shut.

"Now, the Atlesian Military has the simple idea of removing men from the dangers of the battlefield; however, there are still many situations that undoubtedly require a 'human touch.'" Ironwood said.

I swiveled my head and found two familiar silhouettes near a street leading away from the plaza.

"So, our greatest minds, in co-operating with the Schnee Dust Company are proud to introduce... The Atlesian Paladin!"

 _" It's just a standard-issue mech suit. Just wait until these people see Project Templar."_

Fortunately I was at the back of the crowd, so simply turning and walking whilst feigning a terminal case of disinterest was easy. I leapt up to the rooftops as soon as I got close enough (which, given the ever increasing height of my Leaps was pretty far) and relocated Penny and Ruby, right as Penny bolted.

I followed the two from above, on the rooftops, watching the brief chase with some interest. I'd taken a refresher on the related episodes I'd be running through today, so the events were still fresh on my mind: Ruby's assistance, followed by-

 _HONK, HONK, SCREECH-CRASH!_

That.

The crash was actually rather spectacular. It takes a metric fuckton of force to rip bitumen up like that: I literally needed to bullet-dive full-force off a springboard about a hundred meters in the air to do that.

That the Old Man's truck didn't simply disintegrate was a small miracle... that the Old Man himself didn't experience major whiplash, or his have sternum snap like a sheet of plywood was fucking amazing... Remnans must be made of some amazingly sturdy shit...

Fucking aura.

I followed Penny across the rooftops once more.

* * *

I silently dropped down behind Penny, around the corner, so Ruby didn't notice me.

"No, no you wouldn't understand." Penny said.

"I think she can be trusted with your little secret Penny." I said.

"Cobalt!" They both shouted in unison.

"Don't mind me, just dropping in." I said. "I couldn't help but notice you two as you ran off, so I followed you across the rooftops... Wanted to say 'hi' and all... That was some pretty impressive work there Penny."

"Oh..." Penny said.

"What was with that? What's going on right now?"

"Ruby, you're my friend, right? You promise you're my friend?" Penny asked.

"I promise"

"Ruby... I'm not a real gir.l" Penny said.

I couldn't help myself. I laughed.

"Hey!"

I wiped a tear from my eye.

"Penny, you have a definite, tangible soul I could measure. That's, like a bajillion times more than _any_ other synth I could mention off the top of my head, Including all my favorite, intelligent robots." I said. "You're a real person alright... you're just different, y'know, like aliens or dwarves or elves."

"What?"

"I used to read a lot... but that's not important, what is important is this: So what? You're synthetic, rather than birthed. Big whoop. The circumstances of one's birth are irrelevant; It's what they do with the gift of life that truly matters."

"That's... oddly wise of you." Ruby commented.

"Don't expect more, I was quoting a cartoon character... But I digress: Ruby, is Penny being a synth at all a bad thing to you?" I asked.

"What? No, why would you even ask something like that? She's awesome!" Ruby demanded.

"So Penny can hear it 'from the horse's mouth'." I replied with a smile.

"Oh."

Penny looked happy enough to burst into tears.

The moment was ruined, however, by shouting, indicating the arrival of those two soldiers from earlier, now hot on Penny's trail.

"Time for us to vanish. Ruby, grab my hand." I said.

"Oookay?" Ruby asked.

I pulled Ruby close and hoisted her into a fireman's hold, to her complaint

"ADVENTUUUUURE!" I shouted, leaping back up and across the rooftops in a puff of glitter, laughing all the way.

* * *

Ravaora followed Yang into the bar. The thumping beat of the music annoyed her, but she put up with it.

"Remind me again why you're here?" She asked.

"I need information, and this guy's the best information broker in all of Vale." Yang replied.

"HOLY SHIT, IT'S HER!"

Ravaora and Yang both looked to see two well-dressed thugs run inside the bar.

"Since they're not screaming about Demons, I'll just assume that was you." Ravaora said.

* * *

Ravaora was not used to so many people seemingly ignoring her demonic heritage

"What did you do?!" Ravaora asked Yang, who had more guns than Ravaora had seen in her life currently pointed at her face.

"Stop, stop! Nobody shoot!" A tall, well-dressed man said, pushing his way through the small crowd of angry thugs

He got to the front and asked "Blondie, you're here... why?"

"You still owe me a drink" Yang said grabbing the man by the vest and pulling him towards the bar.

Ravaora tentatively followed after Yang, not wanting these thugs to start paying her attention.

* * *

Lisica followed Blake and Sun to the White Fang meeting, only hesitating slightly to don the cheap metal mask.

She could probably have a much more authentic-looking monster mask in five minutes, tops. Made from good metal, too.

A quick check to make sure that her button-camera was indeed switched on and working properly (the ability to sync apps to her HUD from Cobalt's phone helped), Lisica made her way through the crowd.

She wasn't the biggest fan of the 'mufti', or street clothes, she was wearing, but her regular outfit as a huntress was rather 'loud'.

So instead she was wearing a hoodie and denim jeans... thanks to gamer, she could be in her less restrictive Huntress outfit in a split second, and was keeping that ability primed in the back of her head.

She was also under the effects of a dose of 'Cateye' Cobalt had imported as a stopgap until the spellbooks for night vision and true sight came in. The drug granted low-light vision, which would be a boon in not getting caught and then subsequently lynched when shit hit the fan.

Now she settled in and waited to see what came of tonight.

* * *

 **And that's this chapter.**

 **I know it's short, but adding in the rest of the action from Painting the Town would likely blow this to over 3000 words, and I still want to pop a few surprises and funny moments.  
So I get to treat you lot: Double feature of this and Chatper 26 which will be out in a few minutes (the vast majority of you will never notice, though).  
that, and I'm currently beginning on Chapter 30. Either I've been really bored as of late, or the chapters have been easier to write for a while... at least I don't have to sweat so bad when the weekly updates comes rolling around, and it gives my betas more time to go over things.**

 **...Now then, let's see what's going on at Roosterteeth and- oh! New episode! Dum de dum de dum- *Penny dies* okay, bub, YOU JUST CROSSED THE MOTHERFUCKING LINE!**  
 **That settles it, I now have horrible, horrible plans to put into place.**  
 **Edit: more new episodes?! I can barely watch.  
*Velvet's weapon*  
** **HOLY FUCK! YES! that is so going in!  
*Yang is disarmed*  
** **Adam, you have successfully made my personal shitlist. When the time comes, I will find you and kill you.**

 **Reviews**

 **Another Guest:** _"I_ _Liked it til you brought in another gamer, now it just doesn't feel unique to the MC or anything."_  
 **once again, please, sign in, so I don't need to go on a rant here. Even if they are just footnotes, people read these things, and choking them up with rants isn't my idea of fun or service to the fans.**  
 **As for the actual review: It seemed like a good idea to me.**  
 **Cobalt's already a 'wish fulfilment character', so I need to start slinging major issues at him, and in my mind, the only thing short of Deus Ex Machina, or Devil Ex Machina, that can stop a Gamer cold would be another gamer... or a particularly informed gentleman with bad intent who can catch the gamer early... and that opportunity's been and mostly gone.**  
 **Plus, no one said that Gamer couldn't have a Player 2.**


	27. Painting the Town

Lisica was surprised to see the guest speaker for tonight.

Roman Torchwick.

He was still active. He had a robotic arm to replace the old one, but he was still up and about. Likely he had to be cajoled and outright threatened into the role... not that he likely wasn't already, but hey.

"What's a human doing here!" a random faunus shouted, summing up everyone's thoughts.

"I'm glad you asked, dearie." Roman said. "Now I'll be the first to admit, humans are the worst... case in point. Now I understand why you'd want to see us all locked away, or better yet: killed."

"Is he going somewhere with this?" Sun asked Blake.

"Would he be up there if he wasn't?" Lisica asked back.

"Point."

"...Now, we all have a common enemy: The people in control; the ones pulling the strings..."

Roman was starting to gain some support with the crowd.

"...The dirty rotten humans that run our kingdoms. Government. Military. Even the schools. They're all to blame for your lots in life." Roman said.

By now the crowd was cheering. Blake and Sun exchanged a glance.

"...And they're all pests that need to be dealt with. Fortunately I'm the best exterminator around... no offense to any rodents in the room." Roman said, before snapping his fingers.

The large curtain behind him was pulled down, revealing an Atlesian Paladin mech.

"it's only a prototype." Lisica whispered to Blake.

"As you may have heard, this is Atlas' newest line of defence against all the scary things in the world; And thanks to my employer we've managed to snag a few before they uh... 'hit the shelves'. Now, many of your brothers have already moved down to our new operation in the southeast. If you want to stay within the city, that's fine, but if you truly want to fight for what you believe in... this is the arsenal I can provide you. Any questions?" Roman said, finishing his little speech.

"We should get out of here" Blake said as the crowd cheered over her.

"All new recruits, please move forward."

Lisica felt her muscles tense, knowing what would happen in the next minute or so.

* * *

"I don't know."

"How can you not know?"

"I haven't talked to him." Hei Xiong Jr., better known simply as Junior, told Yang. "I haven't even seen him since the night he first came in here. He paid up front, I lent him my men, and none of them ever. Came. Back."

Neptune then displayed a astounding lack of insight for a supposed 'intellectual', and asked "So where did they go?"

Ravaora rolled her eyes and took another sip of the cocktail the bartender had given her.

It beat the hell out of the piss that passed for ale back on her world... not that she'd ever been able to afford anything decent, if she ever got as far as the Inn in most towns. A Tiefling Warlock is basically shorthand for "destructive" and "Chaotic Evil"… and it didn't help that her pact-lord was a Fiend either.

"So... what are you supposed to be?"

Ravaora looked up from her drink and saw that one of the staff had approached her with the question.

"Piss off."

"Hey now, I just asked a question. You some kind of mutant faunus or something? No offense."

Ravaora raised an eyebrow at the man, who indeed seemed to be genuinely curious.

"If you must know, my grandfather was a demon and my mother a human cultist, making me a Tiefling."

"A Demon? Isn't that a really old term for Grimm?"

"It's- I suppose it is, isn't it... well, these demons are not like the Grimm, and if you value your tongue, I'd suggest you stop asking."

The man's reply was cut off by raised voices from Yang's direction, followed by Yang walking out the bar.

Ravaora tossed back her drink and placed a few Lien cards on the counter before leave.

"Farewell." she said over her shoulder.

"Damn man, she's colder than you two." One grunt said to the twins, who sent him a glare that promised many bad things in the next thirty minutes, so Ravaora didn't bother with him.

* * *

Raven stepped outside before everyone in Cobalt's party (everyone but JNPR, who had elected to stay at Beacon that day) got a message via teamchat.

In it was an inordinate amount of screaming and gunfire and the distinctive tapping of claws on pavement.

"Everyone!" Blake shouted "If you can hear me, we need backu-!" Blake said, but was cut off by Sun screaming "HEEEEELP!" Over the open line.

Sun then proceeded to give the absolute worst description of a Paladin Mech that generally left a lot to the imagination.

"Sun, I am disappointed you have no clue what a piloted mech suit is." Cobalt fired back across Teamchat. "I'm headed your way, All vectors, this is control: According to Lisica, they're in the Warehouse district heading for the freeway. Roman Torchwick has a stolen prototype of a paladin mech and is to be considered even more dangerous than normal... look for the giant fox."

"Giant fox?" Neptune asked Yang.

A van-sized streak of golden fur carrying Blake and Sun in it's tails sped past them, followed by a large clanking robotic monstrosity.

"Oh." Neptune said before Yang sped off on bumblebee with him, accidentally leaving Ravaora behind. "That giant fox."

Ravaora saw this and stood blinking for a few moments.

"Fuck this shit, I'm out. If they want to waste everything on an epic-level encounter, they can do that." Ravaora said before heading back inside to waste more of Cobalt's money on booze.

* * *

As Lisica hit the highway she tossed Sun and Blake at a pair of cars each.

They could be a lot more useful if they could attack.

Roman just powered through the cars behind them whilst Lisica was careful and nimble enough that, large as she was, she was able to prance around the cars, though it upset her stride more than she would like.

The sound of a motor between the clanging footsteps was cause for Lisica to glance backwards, and see Yang and Neptune had arrived, but had ditched Ravaora.

Being behind Torchwick meant that they had to do some fancy bike-related dodging to not get pwned though.

Neptune opened fire with his rifle before swapping it to it's guandao form and in a move worthy of Cobalt himself, stuck it into the mech and clung on for dear life as it shook him free.

Cobalt finally arrived at this point, making a lightning enhanced strike with Raiden before clinging to the mech himself and unloading point blank with the Storm Bolter at the face plate of the mech. The Bullets didn't seem to penetrate deeply enough, or were caught by the armour, meaning Cobalt didn't do much with the Storm bolter... they really had to name that thing... and the Exitus rifle, and the... Cobalt didn't seem to name his guns it seemed.

Sun helped him out, of course, with his magic aura clone things, which delivered a pair of stunningly powerful hits before exploding, followed by an attempt from Sun himself, but all three boys were flung from the speeding mech and off the freeway.

* * *

Time to employ a moment and tactic that Cobalt had been dreaming of ever since he'd arrived. Sure it had involved a motorcycle before, and he had hoped to have one by now, but Cobalt could change a plan as circumstances dictated.

As Cobalt dusted himself off, Lisica landed next to him.

"Thanks Liz." Cobalt lifted himself up onto her back.

"You guys coming? We're off to bag and tag the biggest criminal in all Vale." Cobalt asked Sun and Neptune.

"I think we'll sit this one out, our aura's not looking so good." Sun replied.

"A'ight... suit yourself, more XP for me." Cobalt said before drawing Raiden.

"CHARGE!" He shouted as Lisica took off towards the fight at full speed at the party indicators revealing team RWBY's position.

* * *

Roman couldn't move with all the ice buildup on the mech, he was down both his arms, and hitting Yang had only made her stronger and angrier.

Then Yang was catapulted into him with a punch that reduced his mech to scrap metal.

He pulled himself from the wreckage, brushing the dirt off his suit.

"I just got this thing cleaned!" he complained.

He looked up to see Yang shoot a high explosive round at him... which was blocked by Neo.

"Forget about me, asshole?!" Someone said in the distance.

Everyone stopped and glanced at the katana kid that he'd punched earlier... riding a giant, multi-tailed fox.

"Now there's something you don't see every day." Roman commented.

"Did... DID I JUST MISS THE FIGHT?!" He shouted.

He sounded way more disappointed than Roman would've thought he would be.

He dismounted and sheathed his sword.

"What are you doing here?" Roman asked.

The kid ignored him.

"Yo Neo!" He said in a downright friendly manner.

"Wait, you know him?" Roman asked Neo

"Wait, you know her?" RWBY asked the kid

"She kicked my arse and declared me interesting enough to let live." he said. "Everyone, meet player 2."

"Player 2?"

"Neo's a gamer. Like me." The kid said.

With a sound of shattering glass, Neo appeared with her knife pressed against Cobalt's throat.

"I'm guessing that was a secret." The kid said, though he posed it like a question. God this kid was full of himself... and remarkably calm for someone with a knife against his throat... which reminded Roman of himself in a frighteningly uncomfortable fashion.

The knife pressed against his throat even harder.

"Not even if I had this?" The Kid said holding up a tub of... was that ice cream?

Neapolitan Ice cream?

Just who in the hell was this kid?

Neo, of course, immediately reverted to being a big kid and reached for the ice cream, seeming to forget that she was riding the kid piggyback style, and the kid, like a champion, was keeping it out of her reach.

Everyone reacted at the clicking sound. Roman felt his one remaining good hand explode like the last one. His aura actually interacted with the bullet this time, but being low from the fight it merely slowed and redirected the bullet from his chest to his arm.

Roman swore and squealed like a stuck pig, Neo kicked the golden haired kid who had seemingly appeared out of nowhere whilst they were busy gawking at the new kid and the spectacle he put on with Neo.

The chick went out like a light, the Kid pulled out that damn gun of his and completely failed to hit Neo before she had punched him in the face, stolen his ice cream and teleported to his side and then to the waiting Bullhead

"This isn't over asshole!" The Kid shouted after him

Of course it wasn't. Roman was going to get his revenge.

* * *

 _Neo: 'Using me as a distraction whilst the other one took the shot... you're good'_

 _Cobalt: 'sistah, you don't even know the half of it'_

 _Neo:_ _'how did you know about the ice cream?'_

 _Cobalt:_ _'I didn't, I took a wild guess after following a notion I stumbled across after noting the icecream theme to it's logical extreme... I was just hoping to bribe you'_

 _Neo:_ _'my thighs_ will _murder you for this'_

 _Cobalt:_ _'… sorry, but do you mean that in the safe for work fashion or...'_

 _Neo:_ _'what do you think?'_

 _Cobalt:_ _'given that it's you? I'd give it 70/30 odds it's PG rated.'_

 _Neo:_ _'only 70/30?'_

 _Cobalt:_ _'I have read some oddball fanfics.'_

 _Neo:_ _'What?'_

 _Cobalt:_ _'A lot of unsubstantiated claims are involved with the story behind that one statement alone, and this conversation would really drag on and I think they're starting to realize I'm not just surveying the wreckage.'_

 _Neo:_ _'I suppose we'll just have to meet up so you can tell me the whole thing...'_

 _Cobalt:_ _'Wait, what? No!'_

 _'_ _Neo:_ _I'll see you soon ;)'_

 _Cobalt:_ _'NOOOOOOOOOOO!'_ _-message was unable to be sent (player has disabled chat)_

* * *

"I guess she made our plans... fall apart?" Weiss said, snickering at her own joke.

"No... just, no." Yang said.

"What? But you do it all the time!" Weiss complained.

"There's a time and a place for a joke." Yang said

"And this isn't it?" Weiss asked

"No... yours just wasn't very good." Yang said.

"Holy shit, did the ice heiress just make a funny? I think you're rubbing off on her Yang..." Cobalt said, interrupting the two, before doing that picture frame thing with his index fingers and thumb.

"At least you got it right... what are you doing?"

"Deciding if I ship Freezerburn right now or not... I mean, I usually prefer White Rose, but I'm not opposed to Freezerburn."

"Ship?"

"Those special attack names are used by the fandom back home to label whatever romantic pairing, or ship, is present in a RWBY fanfic... and I've read a lot... I could talk your ears off about the advantages and demerits of this round of "who is booping who", but I choose life, so I'll just shut up now."

Weiss immediately felt some mixture of dirty and outraged, but was stuck on which to act on right there and then.

"Yeah, no, gross." Yang said, perfectly summing up her feelings instead.

"Hey, I've shut up about it, and I respect you guys too much for that shit... especially now that I've actually gone and met you guys."

"Weirdo." Yang said dismissively, turned and went to catch up with Ruby and Blake.

Weiss just sat there and watched as Cobalt looked all despondent.

"Good job Cobalt, you did it again. Went and put your bloody foot in your mouth... heh, and here I was thinking living out my wildest fantasy would be good for depression..." He said before disappearing in a shimmer of air.

"Depression?" Weiss asked the empty air.

* * *

 **And there it is folks. Chapter 26.**

 **in the original idea, Cobalt was supposed to lead a lance charge and help RWBY heckle Roman... but when I went to write the scene I started entertaining second thoughts about this and if it was a bit too 'sue-like'... that, and Cobalt's 'lance' is currently in three separate pieces and held by a number of powerful boss monsters.**

 **so this is the end result, and I feel pretty happy with it. maybe the dialogue could use some touching up here and there, but overall I like it.**

 **and don't worry about any nearby unscheduled cerebus turns about mental issues and psychological scarring, Cobalt's just got himself worked up over a temporary failing. give him a few moments. I had a rather enjoyable Monster Hunter fic do that to me and I did not enjoy it. (I came for cute baby dragons, why yu do dis?)**


	28. Ozpin, Holy Shit!

On a whim I decided to browse the internet again.

Naturally, the first place I checked, besides my inbox, was Roosterteeth's website; after all, I needed to maintain my leg-up on the competition.

I saw there were new episodes available, and, blissfully unaware of what I was getting myself into, I decided to check in on them.

* * *

 _One Hour and Thirty Minutes later_

* * *

Ozpin was enjoying a somewhat peaceful afternoon, until Cobalt kicked his office door of its hinges.

"OZPIN! HOLY FUCKING SHIT!"

"Cobalt?-"

"No time, Oz; New episodes of RWBY are out and this time I have _dire_ news." Cobalt said, cutting him off.

Ozpin could see the swirl of emotion all across Cobalt's face: anger, fear, and anxiety to one degree or another... the man was practically lit up as a beacon to the Grimm.

Ozpin decided it would be wise to humour this outburst this once. If it had gotten Cobalt this scared, he had to know, and disciplining the boy now would preclude that.

"Fine. Go on."

Cobalt placed his scroll on his desk and rapidly navigated to the relevant websites.

Ozpin watched patiently, picking up where he had left off, showing the finals round of the tournaments... and ending with Yang losing her arm

So there was the cause for anger. Cobalt truly did care for these people... and with Penny, Pyrrha and Yang as the victims of these crimes, not to mention the rest of their teams, it was no surprise Cobalt was furious.

When the battle for Beacon started... Ozpin was amazed by just how much Cinder had levelled against him... and she knew about Autumn's whereabouts.

"The schemes of a madwoman... this whole thing, destroying Vale? It's a distraction..." Cobalt said. "...all for the Fall Maiden's power..."

Ozpin noticed how he was shaking, and gently shuffled to the edge of his seat to restrain him if need be.

"I'm going to kill her... it will not be quick and it will not be painless... I will make her suffer long agony for every moment of suffering she will cause and has caused." Cobalt declared. "And I know just how I will do it. There will be no mercy. "

"You will do no such thing." Ozpin declared.

"...You're probably right... but not from any lack of wanting to: Cinder will destroy everything and everyone. I would sooner die than see her live to see the fruits of her labour... in the words of Arkantos "If anyone threatens my home or my family, they shall soon have a place in my dreams"."

"Your dreams?" Ozpin asked.

"Arkantos often dreamed of old battles and fought old enemies in these dreams." I said. "It's a flowery way of saying he would kill them... and Cinder is one witch I have no compunctions about burning at the stake, before dancing around the pyre singing ding dong the witch is dead."

Ozpin fixed Cobalt with a worried stare

"She has made it to the top of my shit-list. When she makes her move, I will ensure that the only thing she gets is six square feet of Valean turf."

"I understand. I can only discourage this line of thinking, but such times may call for it, I'm afraid. I am glad you have brought this to my attention, and the necessary steps will be taken to prevent these atrocities."

"Thankyou Ozpin... I'll... I'll go beat something with a hammer until I calm down" I said

"I would suggest you do"

* * *

'Whatcha do-"

"GAH!" I shouted and nearly dropped the glowing hot metal slug.

Thankfully I was able to recover it quickly and return it to the forge.

"Jeezus Christ, knock first!" I shouted. "Whilst I doubt I could've lost a toe, that might've actually hurt a little bit."

"Sorry." Ruby said.

"No big deal... anywho, as for your question, I'm much better with a spear than a sword, so I'm making a stopgap out of some new materials I got forwarded from some magnificent bastard with some truly astounding materials." I said.

"Like what?" Ruby asked.

I indicated a large metal rod over to the side.

"That there's made from Mithril I've processed into Orichalcum. It's amazingly light and conducts magic like it's no one's business, whilst being on par with nigh-impenetrable dragonhide." I replied.

"Why is it pink?" Ruby asked.

I sighed. "Orichalcum's like copper, but pink instead of that red-brown colour." I explained. "I honestly don't like the colour personally... and I have a sheath for that mana conductive core that's got even better mundane properties than mithril."

I grabbed the Adamantium slug out the forge and wet the anvil before coming down on it with the hammer.

"Adamantium. Not quite as light, but you can get practical monomolecular edges with this shit, and that will go through a Grimm like he's a sheet of lined paper."

I hammered the slug into a billet, and then into a large sheet before tossing both it and the core into the smelter.

"That's not a forge." Ruby complained. "That's a smelter."

"You need to superheat the metal to get any sort of ductility out of it... which is why I'm wearing most of a firesuit, and the pyrex visor." I said. "The smelter gets it into the lower end of those temperatures."

What she didn't know was that I was also testing the environmental systems on an experimental undersuit as well.

"Speaking of, how in the hell are you actually in here, I've got triple layer environmental protection and I'm still not sure if I should turn the AC up." I said.

I turned to see Ruby drenched with sweat standing at the door.

"Oh." I said. "Huh."

"Anyway, we all saw you making a mad dash for Ozpin's office... is something wrong?" Ruby asked.

"I... er... I... um..." I stammered

I sighed

"Yes... there's something wrong. I just discovered what this conspiracy Torchwick and the White Fang ends up as in the series... I... so many people die... That woman is a monster wearing a people suit." I said, sitting down next to Ruby.

"What? Cobalt, tell me, what happened? What did you see?" Ruby asked.

"I-… where do I begin? The whole thing was horrible from start to finish... so many things to prepare for... I just found out that I need to demolish a fucking mountain to get the grimm the size of an atlesian capital ship before it can wake up and help destroy Vale... I have people to lynch and-"

"Preparations?"

I sighed. "Y'know what? I hate keeping this whole thing a secret... it's killing me here... Fuck it. Fuck it all. Fuck the secrets, the lying, the bullshit... Ruby, I have something to show you that can in no way be mentioned outside of where we're going." I said.

"Wh-what?" Ruby asked, not expecting that response

"...Right after I retrieve my billet from the forge... you wanna suit up and help strike for me? We're just gonna get the weld started." I said.

"I think I'll pass." Ruby said.

"Suit yourself." I said, pulling both parts of the billet from the forge.

I placed the sheet of adamantium on the specially strengthened anvil, also made from adamantium, over the top of two dies which, by hammering between them, allowed me to shape the sheet of metal into a rough U or V shape.

I then placed the Orichalcum core into the jacket and hammered the edges over it, and then hammered the two different metals whilst they were still hot to begin the weld. By this time the metal had cooled too much to safely continue the process.

I shook flux, which stopped oxygen from doing bad things to the metal, onto the billet and placed it back into the forge.

Once it was back up to temperature, I got it out and hammered it until I felt the two metals flow together and forge-weld. I then kept hammering until the weld travelled up and down the length of the billet, before I rotated the billet slightly and hammered right next to the weld until that too welded together.

I continued this process until the billet was one solid bit of metal. I'd eventually have to do more to turn it into the spear I wanted, but this would do for now. I quenched the rod into a waiting tank of specialized oil, standing well back of the gigantic gouts of fire that sprung up the second I dunked the billet.

Ruby was still where I left her, even though the process had taken at least an hour and- oh, wait, the empty bottles of water meant she'd gotten up to try and beat the heat.

I turned off the smelter I'd been using as a forge and cleaned up, putting away tools and leaving the forge in a pristine condition.

"So, ready to go?"

"Yeah. Jeez, what took so long? I was dying here! " Ruby complained.

* * *

The air shimmered around us to reveal the inside of an elevator as it arrived at its destination. The doors slid open and we were greeted by the sight of a small atrium outfitted in a neo-modern fashion, smooth flat panes and organic curves everywhere in sight, with an off-white colour scheme decorated with selections of light and stained woods.

"Where are we?" Ruby asked.

"Inside one of my Dimensional Barriers." I said. "A custom one Aurum made for me at the beginning of the holidays... I've done a lot of work up here." I said.

"I noticed. Wait, up here?"

"…Let's just say this locale gets stunning views, but I wouldn't recommend a veranda" I said. "Come, I've got an extra large window installed." I said cryptically

"What does that mean? Do you ever give straight answers?"

"Sorry, I've been hiding this for so long. It's a habit." I replied

"Why would you hide this?" Ruby asked, walking into a large room with floor-to-ceiling windows stretching across the far wall and two banks of five elevators on the other two.

I merely indicated the window.

"Is it night time in... here... oh." Ruby said, trailing off as she approached the window.

"Welcome to Outer Heaven." I said, performing my best impression of Jurassic Park's John Hammond.

"Whoa..." was all Ruby said as she stared up at the night side of Remnant, though one lacking the large patches of light that would indicate a Kingdom.

She didn't know that, though.

"We're in upper orbit above an unpopulated version of Remnant." I said.

"How... how did you get this all into space?" Ruby asked

"I didn't. Aurum built in a small teleport function and this atrium up here so I didn't have to worry about that. No matter where I am, I can always return to Outer Heaven. Thankfully the module came pre-equipped with a little architecture and starting supplies to get me going, and now I have... well, there's a lot to show you, but first: the guest rooms." I said

"Guest rooms?"

"If you guys ever need somewhere quiet, or to get away, need a place to stay, or just want to spend a day or two up here, I can offer a semi-permanent arrangement up here. I use 'em myself from time to time."

"I always wondered where you went." Ruby remarked.

"Do you mean the holidays, or just sucking down free hours up here?"

"Both"

"Anywho, I have something for you: a Bronze Level VIP key. It's got the magic to get you up here and give you access to the guest rooms at your will, as well as Identify you to any of the staff, so keep it on you" I said, handing Ruby a brown plastic card.

"What?"

I swiped my card and the elevator for Seventh Heaven, otherwise known as the guest chambers, opened.

"You'll see when you get there... actually, y'know what? In for a dime, in for a dollar, I'll get everyone up here. Wait here, and please be respectful of the staff."

"Staff?"

* * *

 **So, that's chapter 27.**

 **I nearly forgot to post... I really don't have much to say, except that a beta suggested that I pad out the chapter at what was somewhere near the 1300 word mark.  
I promise, aside from the boatload of shenanigans you can no doubt guess at, that the next chapter's gonna be slightly longer.**

 **the name Outer Heaven was suggested by Shashenka, who is a big fan of all the Metal Gear games I haven't played yet. the name struck me as oddly appropriate, and so it stuck... up until then, I'd been calling it the Fortress of Solitude.**

 **I hope you all enjoy reading this as much as I have writing this. In all your endeavours, I wish you good luck, and much fun.**

 **edit: Gamelover41592 asked: "** that was awesome but why did you not show Ozpin the season three finale? **"  
** **because, at the time of this chapter's writing, it had not been released... and I'd already written the line "PYRRHA DIED?!" later on in the fic in chapter 32, when Cobalt finishes off volume 3...** **  
**


	29. What Cobalt's been up to

**So, two things before we continue: People have mentioned that Chapter 27 is somewhat lacking in content, and mentioning stuff about the Season 3 Finale.  
I wish to address these concerns.**

 **Firstly: Yeah, you're right. One of my betas said "this point at the 1500 word mark is a good place to end the chapter. Just pad the stuff above out.", so I did... so I'm posting this chapter two weeks early to kinda make up for that mistake.  
Secondly: _I_ have seen the season 3 finale, and know of Cinder, Ruby and Pyrrha. _Cobalt_ hasn't. Chapter 27 was written on the 2nd of February. The last episode or two of season 3 hadn't been released as of then.  
**

 **Good? okay, onto the story**

* * *

"Alright... Everyone's here." I declared across the common room, drawing everyone's attention.

In the room were teams RWBY, JNPR and CFVY, as well as Lisica, Ravaora, Sun, and Neptune, the latter two being somewhat difficult to track down.

"I hope you've been treating Charles and Lily alright." I said, indicating the pair of robots floating around the room.

One thing I'd found was that isolation on a space station had caused more than a few 'fey moods', and, as anyone who has played Dwarf Fortress for any length of time (which I unfortunately hadn't) can tell you, that meant shenanigans. The products of one such episode were Charles and Liliana, the robotic Butler and Maid, respectively.

I'd based them on a design I'd seen, called a Mr. Handy, or Miss Nanny, respectively.

Therefore they were a pair of gyroscopically stabilized spheres hovering with the aid of a small, but quiet propulsion lift engine (read: a small Ion rocket) with three eyes and three prehensile limbs arrayed around the chassis. I'd never understood why a buzz saw and a flamethrower (or was that just a repurposed paint gun?) were standard issue 'hand' attachments on civilian-model robots, so they'd gotten a trio of three fingered hands to work with instead.

"They've been absolutely wonderful, sir." Lily said. "Even the ones you mentioned might be a bit of a handful."

That remark sent a few looks my way.

"Okay, in my defence, getting feet and legs caught in their exhaust is a legitimate concern." I said. "Though, putting it like that, why didn't I get you guys anti-gravs or something?"

"I believe you were busy with other projects at the time." Charles helpfully supplied.

"Thanks Charles. I'll be sure to pencil those into the budget ASAP." I said.

"I still can't believe you have robot butlers." Neptune commented, a sentiment everyone else seemed to bear.

"I got bored." I said. "It seemed like an amusing idea, and they helped me finish this place off."

"They helped build this place?" Blake asked.

"Well, the entire station uses a modular design, and I was able to buy modules from the merchant you can find up here sometimes. My job actually consisted mainly of decorating and getting everything all connected, something I occasionally needed a second opinion or two and a helping hand on... that said, getting ten hotel-sized facilities working was a herculean achievement at times" I said, gesturing towards the room in general.

"Something like this couldn't have been cheap." Weiss remarked.

"I figured out something of an item duplication glitch. What you do is place a large pile of dust- or other valuables like gold, but dust is a hot commodity- somewhere safe, create a regular instant dungeon, and nab the pile of dust in the instant dungeon. You then re-enter the real world and nab the pile of dust in the real world, doubling your money." I said "with my newly-found fat stacks of cash, I bought a bunch of modules and advanced tech to do things like provide breathable air to the station off the extra-dimensional market and the rest was history."

Weiss was slackjawed.

"Was there ever really any doubt I could singlehandedly crash the economy?" I asked. "I have infinite private funding for minimal effort. This station is why I haven't been doing something drastic, like buying out the SDC and re-staffing its mines with androids. Outer Heaven's a giant multi-million Lien money-sink. The generator in engineering alone cost me enough money to buy... roughly... Switzerland."

"Switzerland?"

"That would be a Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy reference." I said. "But yeah, I could probably buy up a majority share in the SDC with what I've leveraged here."

"Hey Cobalt, why do you have this giant fishtank here and no fish?" Nora asked, thankfully changing the subject.

"Hmm? Oh, that... well, the story starts with "I got bored", drawls on a bit with technical details, and ends with "I built an amphibious robot the size of a small dog, designed to act as a pet"." I explained.

"I-I'm sorry?" Velvet asked.

"A corgi-sized version of Metal Gear's RAY, who I, in my _infinite_ imagination, decided to call Ray." I replied.

"Where is he?"

"Well, if he's not in his tank and I'm up here, that means that he's-" I said, mind hitting the end of that train of thought before my mouth did.

The soft whisper of advanced servos and the fact that everyone's eyes were suddenly not on me was cause for me to spin on my heel, only to find 20 kilograms of over-engineered love, joy, and ninja skills colliding with my chest.

Jaune moved out of the way as I was knocked off balance and came crashing down onto the couch and floor.

The little robot resembled some kind of black-and-gold armoured dinosaur or bird of prey, with an angular head that suggested a sort of organic wedge shape with a hell of an underbite, and two little oval-shaped 'pods' for arms. Ray was modelled after the RAY that had appeared in Revengeance, and therefore had a long prehensile tail as well, which it wagged like a dog.

Ray twittered his joy and excitement to see me like a bird, rubbing his face against mine.

"I'm still not sure how you keep surprising me." Weiss complained.

"I aim to amaze in all regards." I replied as I tried to fight off the closest thing Ray could give to hugs and kisses. "And you wouldn't believe how many of these things just happened... for example I didn't exactly program in affectionate behaviour, that's a learned behaviour."

"Learned behaviour?" Weiss asked.

"Charlie, Liliana and this little guy here are all self-aware learning intelligent beings, just like you or I." I said, handing a barely-restrained Ray off to Ruby. "I figured that if I did right by them, they'd do right by me. Calm down Ray, they're not going anywhere."

Ruby seemed relieved as Ray toned down his enthusiasm a bit and decided to simply lay down next to her with his head on her lap.

"I figured hand-raising my AI's, and forging some sort of emotional attachment was how I'd stop one of them going rogue... "Treat your men like they were your own sons and they'll follow you through the fires of hell". I could make dumb robots, true, but... for a lot of reasons, one of them "fuck it, why not", I decided that I wanted the smart-bots."

"And you already know how grateful we are for that, sir." Charles interjected.

Ray decided that he was bored and decided to go swimming in his tank, jumping up and diving in before moving through the water like a dolphin, using his tail for propulsion.

"Now then, I am planning to unveil Outer Heaven and all the technology within to the World at Large at the end of the Vytal Festival, so I'd appreciate it if you guys kept your lips tightly sealed about all this." I said, fabricating a half-truth, rather than an outright lie.

After all, I'm 99% sure that the festival's basically over once Cinder crashes the party.

"That's a bit of a tall order." Sun said.

"Free food, free TV, soft beds available anywhere thanks to teleportation and the opportunity to fly a space shuttle if you keep silent... one of the good ones too." I offered

"Deal."

I chuckled.

"Now... is anyone up for food? Videogames? Movies? I know Jaune's probably got a few he hasn't gone through from his early christmas gift-" I said but was interrupted by a call.

I answered and listened as the person on the other end reported.

"Ah crap. Something urgent just came up in R&D. I'll be back soon." I said and made for the door.

I paused just as I was about to leave Seventh Heaven.

"Y'know, back home they would have slapped all kinds of titles like genius and polymath on me... some of this shit still impresses me." I added. "Never in my wildest dreams did I think I'd own a space base, let alone even half the shit I'm doing or planning to do up here."

* * *

 **Two Hours Later**

* * *

"Are you sure about this?" Jaune asked.

"I'll be in the one going before you." I said.

"Really?"

"No. I've got an armoured pressure suit and a jetpack." I replied "But I'll still be jumping before you do."

"Why did you decide to name it the Vomit Comet?" Jaune asked.

"Because of the sensation of your stomach crawling into your mouth as you streak earthward across the skies at Mach 2... followed by the hard landing, which is like riding a train crash into the ground... that said, I've made a few drops in these things." I explained. "And promptly learned to install the airsickness apparatus currently over your face."

"It's not for breathing?" Jaune asked.

"That was your last question I'm afriad. The answer is: that's not a breathing apparatus; It's supposed to ensure you don't paint the insides of the pod with upchuck. I know you get motion sickness, and you're taking the express elevator to hell. Be prepared for a bumpy ride." I replied before lifting the door into it's pre-drop position.

I signalled the crane operator and he put Jaune's pod next to the others.  
I still didn't know how I'd convinced him to ride three tonnes of metal from geostationary orbit to Remnant. He'd even seemed adamant about it until he'd learned what an Orbital Drop Assault Pod actually was.

A quick mental command and a large hunk of metal was pressed to my face and neck before swiftly folding out into an aerodynamic helmet, Dead Space style.

 _"Radio check, hit the green button by your face to the right to signal you can hear me."_

I got a slew of affirmatives, which I quickly counted and compared against the number of drop pods, thankfully getting the same number

 _"Excellent, I'll be in constant radio contact throughout the drop so I can talk you through everything that's happening. Pressure's already starting to drop so if you hear any hissing, do tell, that's an air leak and we'll need to abort until we can get you into a new pod."_

I gave them a full five minutes. Nothing was reported.

 _"The Codex Astartes names this manoeuvre 'Steel Rain'. Don't touch anything but the intercom button I had you press earlier and the pod's automated systems will handle everything. Do try not to pass out, keep your hands and legs inside your restraints, and have a nice fall."_ I said as the hangar doors opened behind me, displaying an energy shield that kept everything from spacing.

I activated my own shield, which would carry me through the burning friction that moving through the upper atmosphere would bring.

 _"I realize this is a daunting prospect, and I will freely admit I did not like my first drop... just think of this as riding your weapons locker into initiation day and you'll do fine, because that's almost exactly what this is. The Grimm shouldn't have any triple-A guns, so you'll be perfectly safe until you hit dirt. For those following in the recovery craft, I haven't managed to reverse engineer the inertial-dampeners yet, and so you'll be enjoying a ten thousand kilometre freefall just like your friends in the drop pods, albiet witha softer landing. Jinn Airlines sincerely hope you enjoy your flight."_

And on that note I took a running start and swan-dived out the Hangar bay, a few small puffs of the jump jets in my Archangel armour orienting and directing me towards the ground.

I let gravity take hold and I waited. It would take a good five minutes before things began to get interesting, and the 'pipe' on my helmet's HUD that gave a visual representation of my projected flight path was straight until I hit Atmo.

* * *

 _"Okay people, don't panic. Nobody is off course, according to my instrumentation, and I can't hear any alarms over your comm-link. That sound you hear is the retro-thrusters slowing you down to a survivable descent. You'll still be going fast enough that I pity anything unfortunate enough to be underneath you, though."_ I said, using the Archangel armour to keep a healthy lead on the party.

I wouldn't be braking for a short while yet, but I definitely didn't plan on lithobraking, or, in layman's terms, ploughing face-first into the dirt.

We'd hit some turbulence earlier but had corrected safely. So far, this was the model of a perfect combat drop.

I was glad for all those environmental systems, as I was temporarily flying completely under the guidance of my instruments. I did know that my armour was glowing hot and I would've looked like a shooting star to any onlookers on the ground (of which there were none)

Eventually a small alarm sounded and I swung my legs under me, igniting the thrusters in a hard burn as I bled off tens of kilometres-per-hour every second, taking my own landing from "resembles strawberry jam" to "downright comfortable."

I'd run dozens of simulations with a freefall machine to make sure I wouldn't go splat, and indeed, I powered through tree branches and leaves before landing hard, dropping to a crouching position as my feet dug inch-deep footprints into the soft dirt, my aura dispersing the force of my landing to the best of its abilities.

Lisica extracted herself from my inventory as I pulled out my greatcoat, now stitched together with heat/fire-proof ballistic weave, and donned it. Lisica was wearing the undersuit herself, and a shimmering cloak that seemed almost transparent at the edges. I still needed to reverse engineer Camelioline, but the cloaks I'd bought still served admirably.

That was a major theme with a lot of my advanced tech: "We bought it from elsewhere and are still trying to reverse-engineer it to make our own."

Over the course of the next minute I listened to the distant earth-shattering thumps as the assault pods hit dirt and guided the occupants through exiting and regrouping.

Within five minutes the recovery ship, which re-hashed the tried-and-true design first seen in Aliens, and then all over early sci-fi, up to and including James Cameron's Avatar, landed near me, and was promptly set as the rendezvous point.

Truth be told, I'd actually bought it and then retrofitted its systems with whatever we could make that was better.

As soon as the assault ramp on the back lowered Neptune and Sun exited and hugged the ground, followed by Weiss, Ren, Pyrrha, Blake and Ravaora. Team CFVY had classes to get to, so I'd seen them off to the elevator.

Given the comm chatter from the rest of the gathered students over their headsets, I was lead to believe that I was the only one who had enjoyed their flight.

 _"Alright, take a quick breather to swallow your stomachs, but remember we're still in the Emerald Forest, and therefore hostile territory no matter which side of the dimensional barrier you're on."_ I said across comms.

I got a few angry replies and choice words, the second of which was often 'you'

 _"Okay, so it's not everyone's cup of tea... and I'll reiterate that my first jump wasn't so great, but no one passed out from the G-forces and we all hit dirt safely. Once everyone regroups this drop will be a 100% success."_

"Are these pods really necessary?" Pyrrha asked via the headset I'd given her in her pod.

"A parachute leaves you so vulnerable in this day of lasers and lightning guns, and the pod is useful for dynamic entries. Can you honestly say that there's many defensive lines that wouldn't buckle with flanking power like this on the enemy's side?" I explained.

"What about your armour?" Pyrrha asked.

"The assault jets on Archangel Armour are all well and good, but I'm, like, 90% sure they're still removing my helmet's faceprint from the hangar roof after some nasty training accidents. I'll point it out next time we're up there." I said. "And I'm somewhat more durable than a baseline human."

"Oh."

"Now who's ready to go hunting?"

* * *

 **30 minutes later**

* * *

"That's a Deathclaw?" I asked staring at the 5 metre tall Grimm in front of me.

"Yep."

 _ **Deathclaw, Level 85**_  
 _ **Alpha Grimm**_

The bipedal reptilian with knuckle-dragging hands bearing it's namesake weapon and a face full of angry glared at us.

"Fuck."

"Y'know, for some reason, I expected something a little more original... but hey, monsters of modern mythology." I mused.

Lisica sent me a glare.

"Right, shutting up now." I said.

I readied StormBolter, ready to fire, when I felt a sudden migraine. Normally pain like this was manageable thanks to Gamer's mind, but even with that thing going off it's nut, I was still brought to my knees in seconds.

I tried to vomit but I hadn't eaten in almost a month, so I ended up painfully retching and spitting up empty stomach acids... not bile, that was introduced after the stomach, and indicated a very serious issue if you puked that.

I felt Lisica grab me and lift me into a fireman's hoist, before setting off at top speed down the tunnels.

A brief moment of clarity in the haze of pain showed me a flash of... something.

I didn't even have to speak to get Lisica to satisfy my curiosity, and, with the RWBY teams ahead of us, Lisica and I surreptitiously swerved into the wrong end of a T-intersection.

Once there, the haze lifted from my mind and the pain stopped just as suddenly as it had arrived. Lisica slowed down so I could move on my own two feet.

I was _so_ putting myself through the medical scanner as soon as it was plugged in.

We resumed our mad dash the second we realized the Deathclaw had followed us and not the canon characters.

We didn't get far before we found a sharp incline that was covered in damp moss and the like, making it quite slippery. Our shoes slid on the muck and we slipped and fell.

When we finally came to a stop we were at the bottom of a large, dark den... filled to the brim with lesser Grimm of various descriptions, who had seemingly cleared a space in the centre for us for some odd reason.

We didn't realize why until we heard, and then saw, that the Deathclaw had followed behind us, and was now all but bellowing its challenge

And I got another duel request. Odd.

"Should we?" I asked.

"It's this or never get Astartes back so we can figure out what the hell that Legacy did." Lisica replied

"You have a point." I said standing up, drawing and activating Raiden and holding the Storm Bolter in my left hand.

"In the words of Yugi Muto, It's time to duel!" I remarked.

Lisica groaned and facepalmed.

"What? It's a classic!"


	30. Dealing with a Deathclaw

I ducked under a swipe and Lisica nailed the Deathclaw in the face with Militarum's claws, followed by a stab at the Grimm's hamstrings with Raiden.

Lisica and I were tag-teaming the Deathclaw. Because she was my familiar, she got an automatic pass on joining in on duels. Individually, you might be able to run one of us down, but as a team, not even Satan himself could have caught us... actually, I have a healthy respect for Murphy, so I better not go around saying that.

The Deathclaw would swipe left, we would dodge right and shove a pipe bomb where the sun don't shine.

Figuratively speaking. I had some class, and had splashed for frag grenades... and I wasn't going anywhere near that thing's taint, with any length of bargepole...

Speaking of, I should look into turning Mercury's ass into the next pedestal of time... Later.

Still, we were owning it... though everything would go to shit if it o much as clipped one of us

Lisica backflipped out the way of a stab with the thing's claws that kicked up dirt, which gave me ample opportunity to leap onto it's shoulders and start ringing it's skull like a bell with one of my smithing hammers.

I quickly managed to destroy one of its eyes before I had to lean back to dodge a grab and slid down its back, using my flip belt to reach the duels boundaries before activating mana muscles and leaping straight at the beast as it turned to face me.

The punch to the gut delivered was devastating, and I saw the Deathclaw coughing blood. I'm damn sure I felt something break, but my hand hurt enough that I wasn't sure that it wasn't my hand. I had lost some HP.

Its health was getting low too. I wasn't surprised to see more visible, likely permanent damage showing. The status bar told me he had internal bleeding now and was pissing health like there was no tomorrow. I wouldn't be surprised if I ruptured something important like a lung or stomach.

I shook my hand out as Lisica jumped on it from behind and raked Militarum across the beast's throat, the sharpened edge dragging further back than she had expected. She ended up tumbling backwards from the beast with its head on her lap. seeping blood into her pants.

"Damn son..."

The cavern around us exploded into uproarious howling and roaring.

"What the-" I started.

The barrier dropped... but not a single Grimm moved to attack us.

They looked almost... expectant... like they were expecting something...

In hindsight, I'm 90% sure that the idea wasn't mine... but I bellowed a wordless warcry at them.

The Grimm seemed to accept that and ran, howling, roaring and screeching through the caverns, leaving us behind.

"What?" Lisica asked.

"Figure it out later." I said

"Did we just 'necromonger way' our way to pack alpha?"

"Questions later, X-Com way now!"

Lisica nodded, knowing just how frightened I was, and began to pick over the corpse.

I noticed that I had unattended to system notifications.

 _ **You defeated the Clockwork Golem!**_  
 _ **Raid Completed: The Dark Beacon**_

 _ **+450,000 xp**_

 _ **Level Up!**_ _ **Level Up! Level Up! Level Up! Level Up! Level Up! Level Up! Level Up!**_

 _ **Your growing strength has advanced the power of your familiar!**_

No sooner than I had finished reading that, Lisica groaned as one of her tails split in two, leaving her with six.

"Sorry 'bout that. Looks like we had some backlogged rewards." I said.

Lisica rolled her eyes.

The tail splitting wasn't painful... just the new tail was more sensitive than the rest, its nerve endings not used to regular sensations, so light touches after the fact might be painful, and the air swishing over the new appendage, through the fur was... well they say to enjoy the little thigns.

 _ **You have dis-armed the opponent (literally), and victory is yours! ;)**_

 _ **+5,000 xp**_

I rolled my eyes at the pun. Apparently, the game had a sense of humor.

 _ **Alpha Deathclaw has been defeated**_  
 _ **Duel "Pack Dominance" has been won**_

 _ **Prize: +600,000xp**_  
 _ **Title: Alpha Grimm**_

 _ **Raid: Emerald Caves has been completed! +400,000xp**_

 _ **Level Up! Level Up! Level Up! Level Up! Level Up! Level Up! Level Up! Level Up! Level Up! Level Up! Level Up! Level Up! Level Up! Level Up! Level Up! Level Up! Level Up! Level Up!**_

 _ **Your growing strength has advanced the power of your familiar!**_

Lisica seemed to lose herself for a moment, and through my link I felt some unknown power. She, and through her I, could feel it as the power radiated from the universe around her and through her like a stream, and all she had to do was reach out and she could drink from the waters.

It staggered both of us. We knew Kitsune got a major power boost at five, seven and nine tails. At five we'd become aware of the power but couldn't do much with it... with this, we could hardly wait for nine tails, and could barely imagine what must be like taking a swan dive into the cosmic power must be like.

Lisica gave me a strange look and I realized that I'd basically described the force.

"We're calling it cosmic energy and that's final." I said. "I am not expositing every three steps once we go public."

It was about there that a stray thought alerted me to the fact that I'd actually lost track of my level by now, but I knew it to be over sixty... heck after a while, I'd nearly forgot I was a gamer unless I wanted to abuse my durability or my odd physiology or remind someone of them.

I checked my character page to familiarize myself with It.

 _ **Cobalt Jinn**_  
 _ **Race: Human**_  
 _ **Class: Harlequin**_  
 _ **Sub Class: Dragon Knight**_  
 _ **Title: Death's Jester**_

 _ **lvl 69**_  
 _ **11,900/69,000 xp**_

 _ **HP: 305/305**_  
 _ **MP: 320/320**_  
 _ **SP: 220/220**_

 _ **Points: 162**_  
 _ **STR: 54**_  
 _ **DEX: 60**_  
 _ **VIT: 40**_  
 _ **INT: 63**_  
 _ **WIS: 50**_  
 _ **LUK: 11**_

I rolled my eyes at the level. I was not going to mention this to Yang until I got another... 57,100 experience points, or I'd never hear the end of it.

When I saw the stats, and the free points I had, I nearly fainted.

How long had it been since I touched this thing? When did I last change my title? Probably back during the holidays, where I'd been stockpiling points for a big spend-up and the last time I'd spent points, I'd just made a Zweihander and I'd put on 40 levels since then... damn, it seemed like years ago.  
I saw that I'd managed to get some bonus 'effort points' as well. not much, but my stats were decently high as it was... The more the merrier, at least now I could stretch my points further.

I decided first thing was first: round out my stats to the baseline... that being the natural human limits of 50 points.

Or at least buff vitality up that far and dump the remaining two uneven points on luck.

Next, my primary stats: I was getting outspeeded more often than I liked, and I needed both firepower and to be able to maintain that firepower longer.

For that I needed Dexterity, Intelligence and Wisdom...

Plus half of my tech was in pieces being reverse engineered. INT and WIS would help with getting it off the worktable and into the field.

I boosted DEX and INT to 100, which left 73 points.

I rounded out STR to 55 and LUK to 15, leaving 70.

I dropped 20 extra on WIS and boosted DEX by another 50 points.

I double checked my stats and liked the numbers I got:

 _ **STR: 55**_  
 _ **DEX: 150**_  
 _ **VIT: 50**_  
 _ **INT: 100**_  
 _ **WIS: 70**_  
 _ **LUK: 15**_

When I punched those figures into my mental calculator, it made a smiley face.  
I hit accept and felt the changes take place.

 _ **For Increasing your Dexterity to 100, you have gained the skill "Flash Step"**_

 _ **Put on a temporary burst of speed! Sprint faster than the eye can see. Skilled users have sometimes been mistaken for teleporting, but unlike teleporting, Flash step moves the user through the intervening space. Naturally, the high speeds lend themselves to melee attacks from previously unheard of ranges, but such attacks tend to be inaccurate and difficult to land due to their almost impossible timing**_

 _ **For Increasing your Dexterity to 150, you have gained the skill "Unerring Strikes"**_

 _ **Dexterity is a synonym for skill, and your skill is such that your strikes never miss. Ever.**_  
 _ **In addition, you can choose to make a normal hit a critical hit by using this skill as an active skill.**_

 _ **For Increasing Vitality to 50, you have gained the skills "Thick Skin" and "Conditioning"**_

 _ **Thick Skin grants a minor reduction to incoming damage from external sources, and grants minor resistances to extremes of cold and heat.**_

 _ **Conditioning grants a minor boost to stamina for training your body past normal limits, as well as minor resistances to extremes of temperature and physical status effects such as poisoning, paralysis and stunning for surviving in extreme conditions such as those found on death worlds**_

 _ **For Increasing your Intelligence to 100 you have gained the skills "True Sight", "Medium Mana" and "Mana Regeneration"**_

 _ **True Sight allows you to buff yourself of someone with physical contact to see underneath the lies and deception, allowing you to perceive them as such. With this skill, Illusions and Invisibility are rendered ineffective, should the opponent fail a contested intelligence check.**_

 _ **Medium Mana improves on your old Mana-increasing abilities, and once again increases the contribution of intelligence to your mana pool.**_

 _ **Mana Regeneration adds your Intelligence to wisdom for calculations concerning mana regeneration.**_

I blinked.

I stared in numb shock at what I'd wrought.

I then began to laugh. Because a major power boost was _exactly_ what I'd needed, and when I even began to contemplate what this meant for my enemies, the implied misfortune and violence had me giggling.

I realized what I was doing and quickly put an end to it before someone found me laughing like a maniac in the middle of a Grimm den. I am not a villain. A pragmatic hero, maybe, or even an unscrupulous one, but I was going to fight to save Vale as it was 11 out of 10 times, which I'm told is enough to qualify as some sort of anti-hero at the least.

Remnant's a death world. Why would you make the situation worse?

"Found something!" Lisica announced, pulling what looked like a smaller Gaean legacy out of the Deathclaw's corpse.

We didn't get an opportunity to get rid of it before the legacy engulfed Lisica's hands and consumed Militarum.

We both swore as the writhing mass stretched, extended and solidified.

When it was all over, Lisica had a pair of clawed armoured gauntlets, eerily reminiscent of the Deathclaw's hands.

Each claw stretched for a good 20cm and tapered to a wicked sharp point and was part of the finger, rather than the knuckle.

Speaking of knuckles, it had re-jazzed militarum's knuckle guns, instead of three heavy-calibre SMG's, Militarum now sported a pair of unrifled shotgun barrels, per hand.

"Well... fuck." I said "at least we don't have to go on some sort of spirit quest versus too-strong monsters to get yours... lucky asshole"

"Thankfully. I already grabbed the dust, the potions, and the lien. Let's get out of here." Lisica turned and started to walk away.

"Hold up, I think you missed something." I said.

"What?"

I picked up the Deathclaw's head.

"It ain't giving off vapours... you keep what you kill." I tossed the head to Lisica.

Lisica blinked.

"We'll get it stuffed and mounted. Make Port _really_ jealous." I said, before turning and leaving.

* * *

"Where's Cobalt?!" Ruby asked, fighting off a Beowolf.

"He was right behind us!" Jaune replied.

"Did he try and sacrifice himself for us?" Nora asked.

"No, the party is still active, he's alive" Ren pointed out.

"He must've taken the wrong turn!" Jaune reasoned "there was that fork in the road that the Deathclaw went down instead of chasing us"

"You think it was chasing him?" Ruby asked

"Deathclaws aren't known for giving up" Blake pointed out

"be safe Cob- ah!" Ruby began to say, but was interrupted by a blue blur zipping past her, followed by a half-second image of Cobalt burying his sword into a Beowolf's face

The blur moved between each of them, immediately killing the dozen grimm they'd been fighting, before heading to the centre of the group and resolving itself into Cobalt wearing a shit-eating grin.

"what?"

"I levelled up about twenty times" Cobalt explained "we killed the Deathclaw. On a side note, check to see if you have any system messages. Some glitch or setting meant they didn't trigger automatically."

"You killed a Deathclaw on your own?"

"We're somewhere next to impossible to pin an attack on when we tag-team something." Cobalt explained, putting his arm across Lisica's shoulders "We just made sure he kept missing and we kept hitting."

"You were in there for an hour!" Weiss said.

Cobalt produced a set of familiar blue, red and green potions.

"Given an infinite supply of these little herbal concoctions, I can fight until doomsday if I have to... I should look into hydroponics." Cobalt noted.

"Growing your own herbs?" Blake asked

"Well, that and it'd cut down on grocery shopping for Outer Heaven when humans come around... and horticulture is a nice little hobby, don't you think? I probably need a hobby that doesn't involve killing and death before I go strange." Cobalt said

There was a shared look between the members of both teams.

"-er." Cobalt appended

Another look

"Anywho, we need to get back to Beacon." Cobalt said dragging us out of the instant dungeon with a shimmer of air.

We looked around and saw a bullhead flying overhead on a normal trip between Vale and Beacon.

"Now then, before someone finds us out of bounds." I said before making my way towards the cliffs.

* * *

 **It was a pain in the ass to go dragging all those old chapters out to properly address Cobalt increasing his stats again.**

 **But it had to happen. The last time Cobalt spent points he was level 20-something, and now "human limit stats" just aren't cutting the mustard, and he needs to go beyond.**

 **Things like Flash Step have been on the table for a long time, as has Cobalt and Lisica's new weapon designs, which were limited somewhat by Cobalt's abilities to produce proper anime weaponry, which were sub-par to say the least, hence the Gaean Legacy.**  
 **The Gaean Legacy is not canon, and is my way of returning to those old designs which were just that much 'cooler' after some drift in the intervening months between getting these ideas on the drawing board, and then on paper.**

 **As for backlogged system notifications? Well, the clockwork Grimm died... like five chapters ago and I've been writing like crazy, and built up a five-chapter buffer thanks to a case of terminal boredom... and then I remember I forgot to award the absolutely nutters XP for killing a level 90 boss in a raid... Unfortunately, once again killing creature's twice your level with a double-digits level is often a stupid amount of experience, so I had to nerf it from the usual 47Mil experience from a single encounter to a few hundred thousand so I didn't completely break the levelling scheme. On that note, Level 69 is completely accidental... just 'oops', and bracing for the incoming juvenile humour.**

 **I hope I explained sufficiently how Cobalt got a giant space station up and running, and how he can afford shit like a giant space station on his salary.**

 **Please direct any criticism, questions, compliments and concerns to the reviews section and/or Private messaging. I look forward to hearing from you lot on this: I love answering your questions.**


	31. Now recruiting: R63 anonymous

The morning after the fight against the Deathclaw was interrupted by a piercing screech.

Ravaora, still tied to hair-trigger alertness after living alone in the wilderness for weeks at a time, was quick to react and was upright and armed with a dagger in less than a second.

"Will you shut it!" She demanded. She didn't know why Lisica was screaming this early in the morning, but it had better have been importan-

Ravaora looked across the dorm and found Lisica's bed was long empty, and that the oddly feminine screaming came from behind the privacy screen Cobalt had installed.

A few quick steps past said screen showed a girl with dark brown hair and eyes sitting upright in Cobalt's bed and wearing Cobalt's clothes, with a wild, panicked expression.

"My- my voice!" The girl said, hands springing to her throat.

"Who are you?!" Ravaora demanded.

The girl seemed to notice her before slowly putting her hands up.

"Now, this is gonna sound absolutely crazy, but I'm Cobalt." She said.

"You're right. It does sound crazy. Now, you have 5 seconds to tell me who you really are before you die."

"It's really me! I swear!" The girl exclaimed.

"Why don't I believe you?" Ravora drawled, sarcasm heavily evident in her tone. "Oh right, because you're a gir-… wait, never mind. That came out wrong."

"I'll prove it. Your name is Ravora and you've been my apprentice for about a month. I know that I nicknamed you Raven after declaring your full name a mouthful, and my familiar, who I also regard as my sister, is also a Kitsune, a magical Japanese fox."

Ravaora blinked for a moment.

"Yeah. It's you... so who hit you with Baleful Polymorph?" Ravaora asked.

"I dunno. I just woke up like this... this shouldn't be happening-" Cobalt said, stopping mid complain.

S/he reached down and groped her crotch.

"God damn it, little Timmy's gone!" Cobalt complained

"little- oh my god" Ravaora began to ask before realizing what that was a euphemism for.

"I am so going to find whoever did this, make them reverse the changes, then snap their spine and shove their head up their ass." Cobalt said, getting out of bed and pulling her usual boots on.

Upon standing up Cobalt patted her pocket before pulling out a small piece of paper. Cobalt read it before screwing it up when s/he bunched her hand up with rage.

"I am going to find that fucking fox and kick her hard enough to take the hat off a Giant Nevermore." Cobalt said before storming out, discarding the note as she went.

Curious, Ravaora picked up the note and straightened it out before reading it.

 _I did it! Catch me if you can!_  
 _-Lisica_

"So that's how you spell that." Ravaora said.

Ruby poked her head in the open front door.

"I heard screaming. Is something wrong?" Ruby asked.

"Lisica turned Cobalt into a girl and now he- she-it- whatever the pronoun is, is looking for Lisica so she can reverse it."

"Oh... wait, what?!"

"She went that way. If you hurry, you might catch her before Lisica is completely annihilated." Ravaora said.

"Thanks!" Ruby said, speeding off using her semblance.

"Did you just say Cobalt got turned into a girl?" Yang asked, not far behind Ruby.

"That's what I just said."

"Now this I gotta see!"

* * *

"Where is she... very funny Lisica, closing your eyes... I can still hear through you though, and I think I know where you are." I said as I moved through the hallways, before losing balance and stumbling into someone.

"Oh! Sorry about that-"

"Hey there beautiful, where have you been all this time?"

I froze, apology dying on my lips and turned to see that, yes indeed, Cardin had just hit on me.

My brain refused to work as it scrambled to comprehend the utter horror of my situation.

"See, I thought I knew everyone in school, but I can't say I've seen you around... not that it matters. My name's Cardin, and you can probably tell that I'm a pretty big deal around here."

I gaped in abject horror, a small mantra of 'this can not be happening' stuck on infinite loop in my brain. The small part of my brain that was still functioning wondered how Cardin could be such an unbearable asshole.

"Speechless? That's okay. I'm amazing, I know." Cardin continued. "You wanna maybe go out some time?"

I blinked. I confirmed mentally that Cardin had indeed asked to date me. I then shook myself out of my stupor.

"Go out with you?!" I said, mustering up every ounce of angry tone and body language I could. "Not if you were the last person on Remnant!"

"Hey, why you gotta be like that? We only just met!" Cardin said, reaching to grab my arm.

"Touch me and it'll be the last mistake you make in this life." I warned him, pulling my arm away.

"Whoa-ho-ho, taking the playing hard to get act a bit far aren't we? Come on, after a taste you won't be able to resist the C-man."

"Hard to ge-" I began before Cardin kissed me. On the lips. There was tongue.

* * *

Ruby chased the supposedly-female Cobalt down the halls but was stopped short when Cardin, of all people, literally came flying around a corner and smashed into the far wall, an inch-deep, fist-shaped imprint on his was followed by a girl whose arms were glowing, who then proceeded to lift him up by the throat.

"Cobalt? Is that you?"

The girl looked at her, her face a rictus of anger and hate for the moment before she saw Ruby, and then dropped Cardin.

"Cobalt? I'm sorry, you must have me confused for someone else, My name's... uh... Azura! Yeah, Azura! It's a pleasure to meet you." She said, hesitating on her own name.

"Raven told me everything." Ruby said.

'Azura' dropped the act. "Oh thank fuck. I was worried about having to explain or pretend everything was normal around you." she said.

"What's up with Cardin?"

"He hit on me, then fucking kissed me. On the lips." Cobalt said "I've half a mind to string him up by his balls as well."

Ruby winced at that, but didn't begrudge Cobalt his- her disposition.

"Probably for the best you call me Azura 'till I find Lisica and get this fixed." Azura said.

"Shouldn't we do something about him first?" Ruby asked, pointing at Cardin who was groaning on the floor.

"Good point" Azura said, before viciously kicking him in the side of the head.

Mortified, Ruby corrected herself "No! I meant taking him to the medical wing."

"Well, at least he'll complain a lot less now." Azura noted.

"I- you- but- argh!" Ruby said, forced to concede that point.

"Hey Ruby! Wait up" Yang said, charging down the corridor.

"Oh, hey Yang!"

"Who's the new girl? Is she- oh wow, someone totalled Cardin. Nice!" Yang said, noticing the trainwreck unconscious on the floor.

"That'd be me." Azura said.

"High-five!" Yang declared, raising her hand for such.

"Azura" hi-fived Yang before turning to Cardin.

"Now then, we should probably do the responsibly and morally upstanding thing and take the poor sod down to medbay before he dies, since there is no way his sternum isn't fucked. Then I need to gargle a metric fuckton of mouthwash. "

"Mouthwash?" Yang asked, confused.

"The fucking asshole kissed me. On the lips. There was tongue." Azura explained.

"He didn't." Yang said, her eyes turning red.

A faint whimpering was heard before suddenly cutting off.

* * *

"Hey Ruby, Yang, who's the new girl?" Nora asked as we delivered a noticeably more roughed up Cardin to the Medbay.

"Call me Azura." I replied. I felt weird, almost dirty saying that, but I did what I had to.

"Nice to meet you!" Nora said, before diverting her attention to Ruby and Yang. "Have either of you seen Cobalt today? We haven't seen him so far and the others are getting worried something will go 'boom' soon."

"Cobalt sounds like an... interesting person." I remarked.

"He is. He's got this weird 'I'm better than you' thing going on, but he doesn't really mean it. He can be really cool when he wants to be, like that one time he showed us this-er house he's helping to build with a robot butler and robot pets and all that inside."

"Robots?" I asked

I could act when I wanted to, and now I was curious about what Nora thought about me.

"He built them himself, they're really cool too, not like anything Atlas makes, but in a good way." Nora said.

"Robots? Well, colour me impressed."

Yang snickered slightly.

"What's so funny?" Nora asked.

"Oh, it's nothing." Yang dismissed.

Nora regarded her strangely.

"Do you know where I could find someone to leave a message with?" I asked.

"You mean Lisica? I haven't seen her either. Lisica's his faunus half-sister." Nora told me. "Cobalt said something about souls and rituals, but it was this long and boring thing, so I didn't catch any of the details. Just look for the Fox-Faunus with golden hair."

"Shame." I said. "But now I really want to meet him. He sounds like he's got an interesting story."

"He does... though occasionally he'll do something really weird, like that time he got a teeth-ling apprentice, which is odd because she doesn't look anything like a tooth at all. But he's mostly really friendly and great to hang out with."

"I should hope so." I said, caught somewhere between mirth and breaking character to correct her misconception.

Yang barely suppressed a laugh and Ruby was snickering now.

"Seriously guys, what's so funny?" Nora asked.

Screw it, time to break character.

"I'm Cobalt. Somehow, last night, Lisica turned me into a girl." I replied. "Though I am glad you think I'm an alright bloke. Glad to get some honest criticism every now and then."

Nora looked at me like I'd grown a second head. "You're right. That is funny."

"My butler is named Charles, and my maid's full name is Lileana, but I normally refer to her as Lily. Your weapon, Magnhild, is a hammer with a folding handle and a grenade launcher in the head, and I ran a brief, one-off remedial lesson once to get you work through homework that one time you, Jaune and Ruby started falling behind with your Grimm Studies." I informed her.

All things 'Azura' didn't know.

Nora blinked in dumb shock as the sisters burst into full-blown laughter.

"Y'know I never thought I'd ever get to do that 'pretend I'm not me' thing ever... at least I didn't try to say I sounded like a handsome person." I said. "Too much integrity as an actor for that."

"Not to mention that it would be a complete lie." This came from Yang.

"Hey!"

"You- how... what?" Nora stammered.

The rest of team JNPR came around the corner before she could get her thoughts in order.

"Hi guys!" I called out to them.

"Hi... I'm sorry, do we know you?" Jaune replied.

"I'm Cobalt. Lisica somehow used her kitsune magic to turn me into a girl, and so I've been on a quest all day to recover my... shall we say, Magic Bean Pole." I said.

The disbelief was writ clear across their face.

I sighed. "I know what a gamer is, I'm currently dating Velvet Scarlatina, I've been mucking about with advanced technology in my secret base in space building all kinds of crazy shit, mostly robots; and is this honestly the most out there thing that's happened, given that I've quite literally split my soul in half to create a creature from... the... soul... up." I said.

"What is it?" Ruby asked.

"I'm thinking I need to refine my familiar spell... if my theory is correct... what happens if I remove the portions of the familiar ritual that bind the resulting creature to me, split my soul, and let the soul dictate the shape, then fed someone else's soul into the ritual?" I asked

Jaune was the first to arrive at the conclusion "You'd make a new body for the soul!"

"If the theory holds up. Yeah. Once I get 'pinkie' back, I'm going to have to run some tests... wouldn't want to turn one of you into some sort of horrible, insane mutant"

"You're definitely Cobalt alright" Pyrrha said "you're the only one who'd think of that."

"The mad science is strong with me." I quipped. "Now then, who wants to help me find Lisica so I can move onto providing functional immortality for you all?"

"The idiot is strong with you, Cobalt."

"Hey!"

* * *

 **30 minutes later**

* * *

"God damn it... moving in this form is taking forever to get used to." I complained as I stumbled once again.

"Huh?"

"I'm... what, a good two inches shorter, my centre of gravity's all wrong, I can't run too vigorously or these... what? B? C-cups? Whatever they are start swinging and throw me off balance again... and I need to constantly moderate my thoughts, since I know all my hormonal tolerances are out of whack for my body, and I'm waiting for some sort of emotional cascade."

"That seems a bit-" Yang began to say.

"If I were a girl tuned into a guy, it'd probably be aggression or something. Testosterone's a steroid, so I'd keep an eye out for roid-rage. It's not just guys who would have issues with rule 63."

"Rule 63?" Ruby asked.

"For any given Male charcter, there is a female equivalent, and vice versa... it's one of those rules of the internet, of which people can only really agree on about four or five, and mostly deal with browsing fan-created content about a particular game or movie."

"...Right." Yang said.

"Just... bear with me, okay? we've still gotta wrangle a shapeshifting fox once we catch her."

* * *

"Get back here you $#& fox!"

"Did... Weiss just swear?" I asked the sisters.

A golden streak rushed past clutching something blue in her mouth and was quickly followed by a certain red-faced heiress.

"Did Lisica just steal Weiss' panties?" I asked.

We shared a look before picking up the pursuit of the Kitsune come-Panties Viking.

...Now there's a sentence you don't hear every day.

* * *

"Ruby! Yang! One of you get Cobalt here so he can control his damn... fox!" Weiss said as we pulled up alongside her.

"Slight issue with that: she's out of my control" I replied.

"Who are- no..." Weiss said before tripping and falling on her face.

"You guys help Weiss, I'm catching this rat bastard." I ordered, speeding up to catch that damned fox.

Considering our 150 dexterity, we were moving at a decent speed... well, yeah, we'd put ninjas to shame, and I'm pretty sure only Ruby using her semblance could keep up with us, but as far as gamers go, that's pretty damn tame. It wouldn't surprise me to start getting friction burns off the air sometime in the near future.

God how I loved being super OP bullshit sometimes... even if there are bigger fish out there.

Speaking of bullshit, Lisica uncoiled one of her tails from the bundle she normally kept them in and used it to launch a bolt of bio-lightning at me.

Given no opportunity to dodge, the bolt stuck me and I immediately felt all my muscles become almost completely unresponsive.

I flopped and rolled across the ground with all the grace of a retarded lemming... Of course, as one would expect, bleeding off inertia and momentum like that hurt like hell, and to add insult to injury, I ended my spectacular stack face down too.

Ruby was the first to get to me. "Are you okay?" She asked.

"Just... peachy... just... can't... move... is… all." I replied, short on breath. Besides a little mana, and aforementioned paralysation, I was just fine.

Ruby, thankfully, rolled me onto my back.

"Thanks" I groaned.

Eventually Weiss and Yang caught up.

"So... your fox... turned you into a girl?" Weiss asked.

"Hold up... I think I'm getting some feeling back... nope. Never mind." I said.

"I'm still neurologically a straight guy, so if you could not stand over me like that, it'd be appreciated... I know those Combat Skirts have anti-upskirt technology in them, but it's the principle of the thing." I warned Weiss.

Yang snorted, and Weiss, mortified, squeaked and took a half-step away from my prone form.

"Thanks ... yeah. I'm Cobalt. Mad science and all... and no, I'm not getting a kick out of this, or benefitting in any way... this is a prank gone too far."

Weiss' impending protest quickly died on her tongue when the sound of tiny feet running caught our attention.

Weiss' expression when a pair of lacy blue panties flopped onto her face was a thing of outraged beauty.

"Lacy." That was Yang. Again.

Of course, before she could scream, I interrupted her.

"You little bastard! Roof running is fucking cheating!"

Indeed, there was a set of glowing, gold-trimmed blue pawprints along the roof that lead to a fox running at top speed.

"When I get my hands on her, I will fucking throttle her." I said.

"Not before I do, Jinn." Weiss corrected.

"Wanna borrow my good strangling gloves, then?" I asked, slasher smile plain to see

"With pleasure." Weiss said

Ruby and Yang slowly stepped away as we started maniacally laughing.

* * *

 **Okay, nearly late. Nearly there.**

 **this was something I had in the works ages ago... I thought it was funny.**

 **hope you like it too.**


	32. Unexpected Consequences

**So, a foreword: there's a little emotional stuff, just so you know Cobalt's not some unfeeling robotic dispensary of snark, he's just putting on a brave face.**

 **also, I've had, like three people tell me that this is the best fic on the site. to those people, thank you, it takes some real effort to simply realize that my work is actually really good, instead of focusing on what I can improve on.**

* * *

"Y'know what? I think this is the longest you and I have been in each others presence before I've given you some reason to call me out on doing something just completely odd... it's nice." I said.

"That's not much of an achievement." Weiss snarked.

"Well it beats the hell out of getting shouted at... no offence, I really do deserve it at times, and it gives me a metric for where that little line in the sand is on all those thorny issues: "How badly would Weiss react to this?"." I replied.

Weiss laughed

"So you do listen." Weiss remarked.

"Yeah, I listen... and you haven't steered me wrong yet." I replied with a chortle.

"How... thoughtful of you." Weiss said.

"I can do thoughtful. I hate giving bad presents and all." I said "Like a name, it has to be tailored to the person who it's given to."

"What?"

"oh, sorry, I used to write. I wasn't the best, but I was decent at it, though not novelworthy, or at least no big bestsellers... and one thing I had with all my characters is that their name had to be... well, they couldn't just be any old tom, dick, or jerry... Names have meaning, before you've even seen or met the character, their name can give you the 'page notes' on their personality... I actually wasn't a fan of the name Cobalt at first, but it just slowly grew on me." I explained.

"Cobalt's not your actual name?" Weiss asked.

"The system didn't want me using my old name, so I chose the 'identity' of a character I had set aside of roleplaying... I thought I'd explained this." I explained.

"It must have slipped my mind... what's your real name?" Weiss asked

I considered it. Honestly considered it, but found myself derailed by a different notion.

"Cobalt Jinn" I replied "It's my legal name, it's what all my friends call me. Who I am now is not who I was on Earth... maybe I haven't totally re-invented myself, but I'm a damn sight different to who I used to be... I'm not the most well-balanced person, I know, but... Remnant was where Cobalt came to life. For better or worse, I live here now, as Cobalt. I'm not going to say I'm Remnan but..."

"You wouldn't go home?" Weiss asked

"I used to ask myself the same question a bunch. I eventually came to the decision that Home is where the heart is... and whilst it was a damn sight safer, it's also a lot more depressing being on Earth... or to put it more truthfully; coming to Remnant was the best thing that ever happened to me, grouchy heiress and all." I said, smiling at her.

"Even considering this?" Weiss asked, gesturing at my body.

"This is temporary at best... and even if Lisica were to be eaten by an Oni and lost forever I could probably adjust and get used to life as a girl... that's not to say I particularly want to, but if that's the way the cookie crumbles, then I've got to hike my skirt up and start wading through the mire of bullshit, because at the end of the day, there's still work to be done, people to save, and tomorrow's Weiss to annoy." I said "Playing hero and annoying you are both full-time jobs, and I don't get holidays for any reason."

"The other day I heard you talk about depression-"

"Ah, I think I know what you're referring to... it's mostly nothing to worry about, just that a verbal faux pas allowed years and years of self doubt and low self-esteem bubble to the surface... again. I overreacted and managed to work myself into a tizzy with an endless storm of 'not agains'. I'll be frank, I had some... issues, with depression. Got nearly as low as I could go. In the end, I mostly quit because I didn't want to inflict that sort of pain on those who knew me... because doing... _that,_ is never about just you, no matter how lonely you might be."

"You... how-"

"the Azura/Cobalt of today is a much different person. If only because I've learned to cope. To give myself a breather to let the moment pass and calm down. A person is the sum of every experience they've ever had... think of yourself before you met Ruby, and after. Sure, Yang's thinking of rebranding the term 'Weiss cold', but when you first got here you were almost too 'stereotypical, old-money rich kid' to function."

"I was not! How dare you!"

"I'm a marine biologist, I call 'em how I see 'em." I defended, much to Weiss' confused frustration.

I laughed at the joke and continued

"The point is you've grown as a person, not just as a huntress since you came to Beacon. So have I. I used to be a nervous wreck, and now I can kick ass and talk to girls, both big achievements, since I was never particularly good at either. Besides, I love seeing those people with rough, even grating, personalities mellow out and become nicer people. They're always my favourite characters for some reason... I dunno." I said, shrugging "I also loathe said characters before they mellow."

"You- what?

"How cute, Weiss and Azura. Never thought I'd see it happe-"

I cut Lisica off, flash-stepping and pinning her against the wall with my forearm weighing heavily against her throat.

"Change me back. Now!" I demanded. "...and if you finish that sentence, I will make you regret it, psychic connection or no."

Lisica smiled. I didn't like that smile, it was _my_ shit-eating smile. I didn't like the thoughts turning in her head even more, and I especially didn't like it when she stuck her hand up my shirt and groped my boob just long enough to become hazy and undefined as she entered my body and possessed me.

Lisica stumbled backwards momentarily as she got her bearings, before Weiss had Myrtenaster against my throat

"What. Did. You. Do?" She demanded

"The kitsunetsuki, or the possession of a person, normally a young woman." Lisica replied with my mouth, moving my eyes and my limbs to face Weiss.

Havign that happen was the single most alarmingly weird sensation, and I nearly panicked despite Gamer's Mind.

"Wh- why?"

"because I can do this-" Lisica began before shapechanging and bringing my body along for the ride.

It took only a cursory scan of her thoughts to realize she'd used her powers to shapechange into Ruby instead of me

"-and it's a permanent effect if you don't have your own shapeshifting" Lisica finished in a pitch-perfect imitation of Ruby's voice... which wasn't hard considering I had an exact duplicate of her voicebox.

The overall effect was somewhat ruined by the fact I was wearing my own clothes still. Thankfully Gamer resized them to fit my somewhat smaller frame so they weren't hanging off of me

Lisica shapechanged back into Cobalt!me at long last and exited my body from under my fingernails.

I quickly found a bin and hurled what little was in my stomach into it. My body was unused to shapechanging, and it had an unsettling effect on my stomach.

"Never... never do that again... and I forbid you from doing that to someone else as well." I said from my spot at the bin

"I can't. Most auras recognize me as a foreign influence and reject me." Lisica said. "However, you and I are of one soul, two halves of the same coin..."

"...So you don't provoke an immune response in me." I finished for her. "And people without an awoken aura?"

"They can't fight it off because they, metaphorically, have no immune system... so it's a power that has almost no practical use except as a disguise tool... especially given the method of entry." Lisica replied.

"And you couldn't have shown this to me in a way that doesn't invoke rule 63?" I asked

"Nope." Lisica said, popping the 'p'.

"Oh screw off, that's Ruby's thing." I said before my stomach came back for round two.

"Rule 63?"

"That's one tree you probably don't want tog o barking up Weiss... Just trust me on that one." I said, cradling the bin like I'd die if I let go.

* * *

"...So yeah, I'm back to normal." I concluded to RWBY and JNPR.

Blake looked at me, then back to the photos Yang had surreptitiously taken.

"mostly" Lisica added

"What?" I asked.

Lisica tapped the tip of her fingers to show me a set of retractable claws, instead of normal fingernails. I hadn't bothered to look until now, so I only just now realized that Lisica had very narrow fingernails that curved down the front of her fingers and thumb ever so slightly, until she extended the claws like a cat.

Following the logic I found that I too now had the same.

"Claws?" I asked, carefully keeping my face impassive even if my vocal tone said 'danger'

"Ditto can't do faces in pokémon, I can't do fingernails." Lisica said. "You know how Kitsune can't do certain things with their shapechanging?"

"I have a tail?" I asked before realizing exactly how stupid that sounded

"No... just your fingers and eyes."

"What?!" I asked, drawing a few stares in the cafeteria. Mostly non-Beacon students, as Beacon natives had grown accustomed to gigantic whats coming from our table

Lisica used a temporary illusion of a mirror to show that I had developed eyes as blue as my name... as well as having 'slit' pupils.

"Oh great, you just cat faunus-itized me" I complained

"Actually foxes have those slit pupils" Lisica corrected

"Bullshit" I refuted, grabbing my phone and googling it.

I promptly dropped my phone. "Oh you have got to be kidding me." I said.

I looked closer and could indeed see that Lisica had the slit pupils as well... how unobservant had I been? I suppose the tails and the ears drew all the attention.

"Do we at least get the night-vison and all that?" I asked "If I'm going to look like a faunus, I can at last act the part without developing a dependency on cat-eye"

"A fox's night vision is typically better than human... I don't know how it stacks against faunus attributes, but I'd say 'worse'. " Lisica replied.

"Awesome" I said, pulling a pair of dark, matrix-style sunglasses from my inventory and sliding them into place, before doing the same with a pair of thin black gloves.

"I'm sorry, I just need to make sure I heard this right. Lisica turned you into a faunus?" Blake asked

"Actually, a half-kitsune, but you'd never know the difference." I corrected her. "At least I don't have to deal with whiskers or something... and if I ever tell you to 'believe it', you have my full permission to shoot me-"

I blinked as I thought of something.

"wait, didn't your eyes change when you shapeshifted into other people?" I asked Lisica

"the Iris changed, but not the pupil" Lisica replied "And I know you prefer the blue colour."

"oh... well, thanks, I guess... I prefer the lighter shades for eye colour, but at least there's something of my 'theme colour' on my actual body now."

"what?"

"think about your theme colour. Red, Black, White, Yellow, Pink... now look at your hair-colours... about the only exception is Nora, really."

There was a pause

"you're freaking out a lot less about changing species than I expected" Pyrrha said

"Gamer's Mind allows me to maintain a calm, clear and rational façade, even if I'm screaming loud enough to put the banshees to shame inside" I reminded her "external screaming's coming... just later."

Pyrrha nodded in understanding

"besides, if one looks at it from a particularly detached point of view, I just got a biological upgrade, and I'm all for transhumanism... it's hard to look at night vision and retractable claws as a downgrade" I said "I'd probably be the first person to lop their own arm off to replace it with a robotic prosthetic I don't need"

"ah, there's the ol' 'Jinn twist'." Nora commented

We all shared a chuckle at that.

"I suppose I should go inform Raven, then blow off some steam in Outer Heaven." I said "do that external screaming... and don't think you're getting off Lisica. I'm making sure Goodwitch knows what you did"

The laughter stopped, and the teams edged away from Lisica ever so slightly as I hit send on my scroll and promptly disappeared

"oh" was all Pyrrha said

* * *

Across beacon, Goodwitch performed a spit-take, and began searching through her filing cabinet for the file outlining protocol #63, whilst simultaneously calling Ozpin on her scroll

"Ozpin? It happened."

"what happened?"

"Code #63. Victim says it was reversed, but they had to spend an entire day like that."

"So he found her then?"

"Ozpin?"

"I believe I encountered them earlier"

"you didn't tell me?"

"Given the participants, I didn't think our intervention would be necessary"

"participants- oh."

"I'll rewind the security footage, you get what you need from the safe... I believe you owe me twenty lien as well."

Goodwithc grumbled as she hung up on Ozpin

"the one time I decide to gamble"

* * *

"you know, you're not exactly making this easy"

Ravaora didn't care, she was too busy laughing at me.

"I'm trying to be serious here" I said

Ravaora continued laughing, occasionally slowing down, but the second she looked at me she'd start right back laughing again

I waited a good fifteen minutes for the joke to finally end.

Then I buried a throwing knife next to her head.

"look, I just came to tell you I'd be up in Outer Heaven for a few hours... and that Lisica managed to permanently alter my form with imperfect side-along shapechanging."

Ravaora looked like she was desperately trying to hold it in. She ultimately failed.

"fuck it, I need a beer" I said giving up.

* * *

"fuck off" I said as someone sat next to me amidst the cans and empty bottles on the counter in the kitchen of Seventh heaven

"Is that any way to greet an old friend, stranga'?"

"what do you want?" I asked

"I couldn't help but notice you were drowning yer sorrows" the merchant replied

"are you selling me something or offering company for my misery? Because my Poison resistance is too high to let me get drunk" I said

The merchant chuckled

"The former, I'm afraid. I happened across a familiar brew I thought you might happen to enjoy" The merchant offered

"well, it can't be any worse than whiskey-dry and vodka-orange." I said, turning to face the merchant as he pulled a bottle from his robes and set it on the counter

I hit the bottle with observe

 _ **Fenrisian Ale, wine of the Space Wolves chapter of Space Marines, of the ice-world Fenris.**_  
 _ **Specially brewed to brute-force its way past the immunity to poison all Space Marines possess, this wine is nearly fatal to human constitutions  
Bar record: 6 seconds of consciousness, followed by a stomach pump**_

"you're a resourceful, magnificent and opportunistic bastard all in one british-accented package... or is it Australian? I always think all but the most stereotypical Aussie accents sound British for some reason... which is horrible, because I'm supposed to be Aussie" I said putting a large dust crystal on the table "this should make up the difference and maintain my credit... this is one hell of a brew."

"right you are, Stranga"

I got a pair of clean whiskey glasses out "you up for a drink? Help break in the new bottle?" I asked

"I'll take what your were 'aving before." The Merchant replied "I ain't a fan of dying, or visit's to the hospital."

I nodded and poured out a generous helping of whiskey and filled the rest of the glass with a dry ginger ale to even out the alcohol, and simply poured myself a helping of the ominously dark red liquid that was apparently Fenrisian Ale.

"Cheers."

I knocked back the drink in one gulp and waited. I slowly counted to five before I felt myself take a hit to my health aura and everything grew fuzzy.

* * *

 **I think I'll leave it up to you exactly what Protocol #63 entails... because I know that the second I put pen to paper, someone's going to invent something I wish I'd thought of.**  
 **So We'll let sleeping noodle incidents lie.**

 **I want to thank all of you again, for your infinite support** **. It has been great to know that I have been making you laugh.**

 **I also wanted to mention, since I seem to be getting this question more often than I should, that I intend to update this story every Wednesday... but then we factor in Timezones, and you lucky Americans get it sometime Tuesday... this of course varies, I might forget it one Wednesday, or I'll be really busy and I might not realize I haven't posted until, like, 3:00am the next day.**

 **Once again I encourage you all to ask questions, give input, and even lob a suggestion or two... just realize that I haven't watched, like, a million anime like most of you seem to, and I can't seem to hold myself still long enough to watch the ones I want to get to as it is.**


	33. The Hangover

"Oh my head, what the fuck?" I asked as my senses finally came back to me

"He's waking up!" Someone shouted, sending a lance of pain through the headache.

"Not so loud!" I complained "my head's killing me."

"We know, sir. You weren't exactly sober when you stumbled in here."

"Charles?"

"Yes sir... and might I request that you be extremely careful when climbing down from your... er, throne"

I blearily attempted to make sense of the situation around me.

I was about half-way up a gigantic pile of dust that reached to the ceiling, that I'd roughly shaped to have a sort of curve I could sit on. That I hadn't blown Outer heaven into so much orbital debris was amazing.

"What the fuck happened last night?" I asked

"Cobalt?"

I looked down and saw Velvet of all people in the midst of the lounge area

"Oh hell... please tell me I didn't do something stupid" I said

"Kept repeating that you loved me before drifting off" Velvet said

"Oh... was that all I did?" I asked

"You also showed me that cartoon" Velvet said "RWBY"

"Ohgodno"

"You've carried this burden on your shoulders this whole time?" Velvet asked

"I- I knew bad things would happen. I didn't know how bad until very recently" I said, honestly.

"It... certainly put into perspective why you'd drown your sorrows... so many friends dying" Velvet said

"So many? I only saw Penny die" I admitted, scared

"What about Pyrrha?" Velvet asked

"PYRRHA DIED?!" I shouted before clasping my head "oh... oh god no... fuck... shit, FUCK NO!."

"If that wasn't why you were drinking, why were you?" Velvet asked

"Oh, that? I might've picked up a few traits that would lead people to call me a faunus" I said "I kinda wanted to just have a few rounds and sleep on it before I did something drastic... I accidentally and simultaneously overestimated my constitution and underestimated the strength of the liquor"

Velvet paused at that "A faunus?"

"Claws, and slit-pupils. Nothing overt." I said, making my way down the throne of dust "Apparently Lisica can't do perfect transformations, and I got stuck with a few relics after a prank. It's a long story."

I turned and looked at the pile "That is going to take forever to clean up" I noted aloud

"How'd the dust get here?" I asked Velvet

"You said 'wanna see a magic trick?' And just kept appearing with armfuls of dust before you climbed up, declared you were the 'dust king' and passed out"

"And I supposed I dragged you up here?" I asked, trying to change the topic before my embarrassed blush became too noticeable

"You did... you showed up to our dorm drunk and I managed to talk you into coming here before you did something embarassing." Velvet said

"Did... was I... how to put it "untoward" to you in my state of lowered inhibitions?"

"You mean did you ask for sex?" Velvet summarized

I winced, expecting the worst.

"No, you were a perfect gentleman" Velvet reassured me

I relaxed somewhat "Well... thanks." I said

"You're welcome"

I walked over to the bar and pulled out a re-purposed three litre plastic milk bottle and filled it to the brim with water, before locating an aspirin and chasing it down with a quarter of the jug

"What's with the bottle?" Velvet asked

"The wine is supposedly so strong that... well, the bar record for humans in it's home galaxy is six seconds of consciousness... I might've managed about one more thanks to a built-up tolerance for poisons. I need to flush my system out and combat the dehydration." I said "That's what a hangover is after all: a fancy word for dehydration caused by alcohol"

I took a deep swig from the bottle to emphasize my words

"Just give me a few minutes and I'll get to cleaning this mess up." I said, indicating the dust throne. "Charles, if you could lend me a hand"

"Most certainly, Sir. No task is too big or small for Jinn Industries' finest butler" Charles replied

"Jinn Industries?" Velvet asked, eyebrow raised

"Well, I might've stolen the schematics from General atomics, but I sure as hell was the one to build him using modern transistor-microchip systems. His motherboard is less than a quarter the size of the original Mr. Handy design... and I reckon I've got the market cornered on the orbital facilities industry." I said

Velvet laughed

"Do you want to go back?" I asked

"It's the weekend. We've got the whole day to ourselves" Velvet replied

"Oh... well, in that case, nevermind." I said, mentally slapping my forehead "Let me get this sorted out and I'll see if there's something we can do together"

* * *

"What the-" I asked as I shovelled canisters of powdered dust into a large plastic rubbish bag so they could be sorted into the appropriate types.

Out of the rubble a large ball of light the size of a basketball floating on leaf-shaped wings similar to those of a dragonfly.

"Whoa" I said, backing off slightly. After all, fae were always kinda dangerous, and this thing screamed 'sprite' or 'fairy' at me... heck, it was a dead ringer for the zelda fairies.

"Hey there little fella, what are you?" I asked

"Cobalt, get away, that thing's extremely dangerous" Velvet said

"You don't need to tell me that. It's native to Remnant, basically everything but the trees are pointlessly dangerous to some degree... and the trees might fall or drop a branch on top of you" I aid

Velvet gave me a deadpan stare "You know that Dust Sprites eat aura, right?"

"It does what now- ohgodmyaura!" I said, feeling, and seeing, my mana drain roughly 100 points... which was less than a twentieth of my maximum.

"No! Bad sprite!" I shouted, slapping the sprite

The Sprite turned deep blue and somehow managed to give me 'puppydog eyes', despite not technically having a face.

My hand couldn't quite reach for my inventory to blast the thing.

"Argh, Goddamnit. No eating my aura without my say so, I might happen to need it, okay?" I firmly told it

The creature flitted around my head in what I guessed was joy.

"What?" Velvet said

"I couldn't bring myself to shoot it." I said

"They kill people" Velvet said

"What, they mob people and drain them dry?" I asked

"Yes. That, exactly. How do you not know this?"

"You'd be surprised what gaps there are in my knowledge... I'm assuming a number of these people are Faunus dust mine workers?" I asked

"Yes"

"That'd explain that... and I'm also guessing from the name that they have some relation to dust" I reasoned

"They seem to eat it. They cause thousands of lien in damage, and one or two deaths each year" Velvet said

"I see... well, this one seems rather well behaved" I said, noticing the floating blue ball hiding behind me

"I- ... generally they flock to any source of aura and try to drain it dry" Velvet said

"Maybe the ones in the mine are hungry?" I asked "It's just the one, it was just in one of the largest piles of dust ever, and I've got a lot of aura, It could've already drunk it's fill"

"That _would_ make sense" Velvet said

We were interrupted by Ray hopping out of his tank and approaching the sprite.

Ray was obviously curious about the strange creature until he accidentally brushed his nose against it. There was an electric crackling and Ray yelped, leapt back, opened his mouth and fired a small laser I'd hidden in his 'throat', burning holes in the ceiling-tiles and walls as he missed the sprite.

The sprite darted to the still gigantic, multi-ton pile of dust and snapped up a medium-sized crystal of lightning dust that seemingly dissolved into the sprite, causing it to crackle with lightning before a pencil-thin bolt arced its way to Ray

I was astounded.

Ray unfolded the knives I'd hidden in each of his 'wings', and leapt at the sprite.

I pulled Ray out of the air, scientific curiosity now piqued.

"That was bloody amazing... can you do that with other dust-types?" I asked

The Sprite seemed surprised at how fast I'd moved, but quickly dashed to the dust pile and retrieved a little fire crystal and processed it, emitting a small puff of fire to demonstrate, before going back and pulling out an earth crystal and assimilating that.

I was lost for words when the sprite spat shards of glass into a bunt ceiling tile.

"Earth and fire create glass..." I noted

"What about aura, what can you do with that?" I asked

The sprite looked unsure of itself.

I held up an energy bolt and fired it at the same, abused ceiling tile.

The sprite seemed to get the idea and hovered close.

I got the picture and reached out my hand and let it drain another 100 aura.

The sprite launched maybe two dozen, much smaller and low-powered energy bolts before it seemed to get exhausted, and the ceiling tile was cracked in half and fell.

"Awesome..." I said

"What?" Velvet asked "You're thinking of keeping this thing?"

"I've got a boatload of aura and a boatload of dust that I'm not 100% sure what to do with. If I can train up, say, a dozen of them with things like energy shields, healing spells and dust-attacks, I've got a potent set of... I dunno, bodyguards or something. It'd be a novel way to attack someone at least, when a dozen weaponized 'pests' show up. I'd have to figure out a few numbers, see if it's do-able, and if I can get more than little... call him 'Cyan', to revert from 'starved animal' mode. This little guy seems to understand me, so training a bunch to work together and with me shouldn't be hard."

"You... you're sure about this?" Velvet asked

"I'm pretty certain I'm one of the few people with the resources to do it, and likely the only one of that elite group that wants to" I replied "I'd like to see where this idea leads at the very least"

"If you must"

"Now then, I don't remember what happened last night, so, let's see those last few episodes... I'm going to regret this, but I have to know."

* * *

Velvet grew more and more concerned for Cobalt.

She'd learned to read people, as a Faunus it was useful for seeing when people would resort to violence, as a photographer, she'd seen her share of smiles and expressions to be able to tell fakes from the real deal, and as a huntress it had proved indispensable for dealing with people during more civic missions... maybe that was one of the things that drew her to Cobalt: he either wouldn't or couldn't hide his feelings, his expressions and body language often exaggerated almost to the point of comedy, and his honesty with her.

He kept secrets, and it was a bit frustrating, but seeing what he had been living with for months, the knowledge of what was coming, she could understand why he hadn't told the others... if they even believed him, knowing what would happen but being unable to do anything to avert it without painting themselves as the bad guys...

Velvet had seen Cobalt drunk and his reaction had been frightening, given the things he'd raved about in an angry rant. Torture, fates worse than death, and even bringing these people back so he could kill them again and again until their minds broke. Cobalt had been honestly contemplating these things until he'd dismissed the ideas with a "They'd never understand. I'd be a monster"

Sober, she saw that same anger, that same grief, but tightly contained, covered with determination and resolve.

Like this, Cobalt almost scared her, if she didn't know him already, how careful and timid he otherwise was around her, she would be frightened.

It was understandable. Underneath his exterior, Cobalt cared for her, for his friends and for Vale, and it was heart-wrenching to see the atrocities she had seen.

As the credits finished, Cobalt stood and excused himself. He didn't say it, but he was going to find an outlet for that anger. A punching bag he could work out his aggression on.

Velvet almost pitied Cinder as she made to follow him. Almost; what she would do was unforgivable.

Velvet found Cobalt in the gym, wailing on a punching bag with Cinder's face taped to it, whilst listening to what a few moments of listening revealed to be security footage from last night.

Cobalt had just gotten to the part where he upgraded her to Platinum access

He froze, turned to the Gym door, and saw her standing there

"Well... shit... so you know about Project Templar?" He asked

 _"Lemme... *hic* lemme show something, I call it Project Tempar... er, Templar, Project Templar."_

Velvet had to stifle a giggle at the timing of that recording, and how silly he had been, drunk like that.

"Oh" was all Cobalt said

"Well, 'father', it looks like all you plans are revealed to me." Velvet said

"I resent that nickname"

"I only have one condition for my silence" Velvet continued, ignoring Cobalt's protests

A look of utter horror passed across Cobalts face.

Velvet leaned in close and whispered into Cobalt's ear

"Nail that bitch to the wall for me"

The minute-long silence as Cobalt tried to register what she'd just said was almost deafening, and his face was utterly priceless, stuck somewhere between shock, disbelief and relief. He looked like a dog trying to chew taffy, and it was goddamned hilarious.

"Y- Yes Ma'am." He said, hugging her "I won't let you down"

Cobalt leaned in to kiss her, and she surprised him by making what would've been a peck on the cheek into a full blown makeout.

When they broke contact, they were out of breath.

"W- wow"

"Fist kiss?"

"Well... yeah... I mean, I- well, I never made out."

Velvet giggled

"Thanks." Cobalt said, holding her there for a long moment.

When the moment had passed and the let each other go, Cobalt thought for a moment

"You've got the mission next week, don't you? What do you say to a little bit of gardening before you head out? I've been looking to grow the herbs for producing those potions I drink so regularly"

"sure"

* * *

 **Hello!**

 **thank you all for your reviews! and *checks* SWEET JIMINY CRICKET! when did GFG pull 350 followers? I- I'm feeling a bit faint...**

 **I would like to thank Guest of the anonymous hordes for once again leaving a guest review.**

 **To the Guest who left a "OMG you suck, your shitty grammar ruined the fic for me" review:  
** **Log in and say that like a man!** **  
**

 **To the Guest whose review I actually bothered to save:  
** Have Cobalt walk into the guys shop and say "Shop keep, find me a Divine Rapier!" And of course he freaks out. If you don't understand it, look up dota 2 Divine Rapier and know that it should do triple his attack damage. Replace lisica's zweihander with it, and know that she is fully badassed out. **  
**

 **I would like to mention that Cobalt already has about twenty weapons planned out for both himself and Lisica, not counting each of the fifty-or-so knives just hanging around in Cobalt's inventory. A bunch of these you've already seen, and a whole bunch are upcoming sometime after the Breach Incident.**  
 **Spoiler Alert: We were planning on a giant, two-handed chainsword/flamethrower either called "Open Says-a-me" or "The Dragon's Maw"... for opening doors and 'tin cans'**

 **Once again, I encourage all of you loyal fans to be as vocal as you can be about the fic. Review, PM me whatever you do, give an opinion, as that is my sole reference on whether or not I've actually done a good job.  
And would someone kick my Beta Readers up the ass? I basically had to manually edit this one.**


	34. Discussions

"Cobalt! I haven't seen you here in ages" Pyrrha said as I walked into the spare training room.

"I'm just here to talk... Though I see Jaune's improving. Another few weeks and you might just be tournament-worthy." I complimented.

"Just here to talk?"

"Well, it's an idea I've been nursing since I started training with Jaune. He's got no real ranged option, and I've been producing some rather advanced pieces. I was wondering what Jaune would say if I looked into getting him a Crocea Mors dos point oh. The Arc ancestral sword is all well and good, but I was thinking you might appreciate something you could truly call your own." I offered.

"What kind of weapon are we talking?" Jaune asked.

"Well, I was thinking of putting the -ahem- 'ol Jinn twist' on a classic Sword 'n' Board. Gotta stick with what you know, and all." I explained.

Jaune looked at Pyrrha, who nodded.

"I suppose."

"Awesome... you can keep Crocea Mors for now, I'll bring the completed weapon to you when it's done." I said.

"Thanks Cobalt."

"Besides, this way you have a pristine Crocea Mors to give back to your family when you finally get home after all this." I added.

I turned to leave before stopping.

"Oh!.. Shit." I shouted

"What?"

"I... uh, I might've revealed my secrets to Ozpin." I said. "Including the nature of your transcripts... I think he knew anyway, but I'm really sorry about that."

"You what?!" They both exclaimed.

"He hasn't done anything in the intervening months." I reasoned. "I figure you're in the clear... just so long as Cardin doesn't try and blackmail someone."

"How could you?!" Pyrrha asked.

"I showed him the RWBY anime, which mentions Jaune's indiscretion... Ozpin's got his hands full dealing with other concerns raised in the anime though... for what it's worth, I _am_ incredibly sorry for ratting Jaune out like that." I explained.

"You showed Ozpin... did it tell you anything else?" Jaune asked

"Well, it mentions and shows a lot of things... let's see, we're after painting the town, so that means... ah!"

"What?"

My face was split by an uncontrollable grin

"Well, it does show the dance... and Jaune, I think you should stop pestering Weiss, she's not interested in you... like at all... instead, I'd recommend you shoot both higher, and closer to home" I said

"what does that mean?"

"It means that Pyrrha really, _really_ likes you, since you were the first person in a really, _really_ long time to treat her as 'Pyrrha Nikos', instead of 'Pyrrha the Invincible Girl'."

Pyrrha and Jaune both it up as red as Pyrrha's hair and couldn't get a word out

I laughed like a maniac

"Pyrrha, I'm sorry to out you like that, but goddamn did you take your sweet time getting Captain Oblivious here to notice you in the Anime... and Arkos needs to happen." I apologized once I began to calm down to giggling

"you... you-"

"I don't normally muck about with the ships as I see 'em, but the SS. Arkos is just plain for everyone to see, except Jaune." I said "Most people tactfully didn't mention it, but I've got a terminal case of foot-in-mouth disease, so I figured I was somewhat lacking in tact and ergo the best person for the job"

Pyrrha and Jaune gaped in utter bewilderment

"oh, and Pyrrha? A word of advice: despite what everyone says, you are not, in fact, invincible, and that there are simply some fights you have no business picking. At the end of the day, your responsibility to return home, safe and sound, to your friends and loved ones trumps any and all others." I added before teleporting away

* * *

"Excuse me" Cinder said

I paused as soon as I realized Cinder was talking to me Come on, Cobalt, you've been preparing for this day

"yeah?" I asked

"I was wondering if I could talk to you for a moment" Cinder said "I've been watching your fights, and I've been meaning to ask-"

"How it is I do all I do, where I learned how to project bolts of aura, who taught me that dance-style and what's up with Lisica and her apparent rapid aging?" I asked, cutting Cinder off "I'm sorry, I just get those question all the time."

"No, it's quite alright"

"Well, if you're fishing for my semblance, it's got something to do with a really, abnormally malleable aura. I just kinda 'will' it to do something and it does it. I don't have name for it beyond 'magic', which just leves a nasty taste in my mouth... that Dance Style I developed on my own from a few different fighting styles that I'd learned to a _decent_ standard when I wanted a weapon-style that would build off of and work on my hand-to-hand styles."

"That's quite a semblance"

"like you wouldn't believe... as for Lisica, she just shapeshifts. She and I were late entries to the Beacon roster, via an apprenticeship. Apparently we really impressed Oobleck in our little regional town in the middle of bumfuck, nowhere... if you'll excuse a little profanity."

"Really? Well, how unusual"

"What can I say? I lead an enchanted life." I said

"what about-"

"Hold up... Cindy, I've told you _way_ more than I normally tell most people... I dunno, maybe you've got an honest mien or something, either way, you ain't getting much further without telling me at least little about yourself." I said

"Compared to you, I'm positively boring" Cinder deflected

"All stories are a thing to be treasured... Why don't you tell me yours, stranger, and I'll tell ye mine" I said

"I'm afraid I've got nothing interesting to tell. It's a long and boring story"

I produced a pair of folding metal chairs an end-able and a bottle of Brandy.

"I've got some time before I have to be anywhere, I can pencil in an hour or two to hear your story" I said

"I'm afraid I must decline"

"hey, look, if you're going to pretend you're interested in me, at least have enough integrity to falsify a backstory. I literally would have taken anything believeable, and that encompasses a lot if you're a hunter" I said "But, alas, Poor Cinder, I almost knew ye."

"wait-"

"Bai!" I said, disappearing in a flash of mana.

* * *

"Hey, Ruby, can I ask you something?" I shouted to Ruby as she passed by the Fab-Lab I'd commandeered

"Cobalt?" Ruby asked

"Yeah... I have a serious question for you" I replied

"What is it- eek!"

Ruby had walked in on me stretching a large synthetic muscle in it's black bag across a canid skeleton made of metal, the whole thing dripping fake blood into a dish underneath the skeleton

"Would you believe me if I said I was fleshing out my latest idea?" I offered

With a great deal of effort, I managed to stretch the muscle across the frame without laughing at my bad pun.

"Now, I know this looks bad, but trust me when I say that this is all synthetic... I was going to ask for a hand putting this together... and if I should put lasers or conventional projectile weapons on this thing"

"What?"

"Guns or freakin' laser beams, it's not the question of the century"

* * *

"So... do I still keep the net-launcher?" I asked

"It's useful for bringing bad guys in" Ruby said

"Ah, right." I said "I still want those tailblades though... probably just put it on two of 'em, as dedicated CQC room clearers. That way it's the best of both worlds."

"Is this how all your robots are built?" Ruby asked

"Titanium-alloy skeletons, with CNT synthetic muscles? Yeah. Then from there I decide which armour and weapon configurations I want, which is a lot of work, and scan the resulting mech, and then feed the design document into the auto-factories back home" I said "some deigns really do require the old servo motors, but I use the synth-muscles where possible because they're so much stronger and more energy efficient... can you imagine what Atlas would pay for these technologies?"

"where did that come from?"

"hand-raised true-AI's, synthetic muscles like this, advanced armour compounds, not to mention ECM and ECCM suites that make you just this side of invisible and unhackable, and stealth technologies that actually do make you invisible, plus concepts and designs Atlas may not have even considered, but are thoroughly badass... if being a Hunter suddenly becomes a no-go, like I get kicked out of Beacon, I could easily sign on with an Atlesian Science team... just thoughts, y'know, what would this be worth to someone... and it just occurred to me that I'm making a small horde of Pennys... which I both kinda awesome and mildly horrifying"

"horrifying?"

"eh... Penny's awesome and all, but I wouldn't wish a hundred Pennys on someone. All those endearing little quirks quickly start to drive you spare." I said "I love her, but I don't want a hundred of her... could you imagine a plague of a hundred Weisses? Or a hundred Noras with no or only one Ren to balance them out?"

"oh... OH!" Ruby said

"yes. So, 100 pennys = horrifying, But only slightly. You could probably coach the Pennys to mellow out the quirkiness with enough time and a careful hand... Nora's basically untameable, and Weiss is pretty much as good as she's gonna get without some sort of romantic interest, which makes their plague somewhat worse" I said

"wait, you and Weiss?"

I opened my mouth to make a comment about Whiterose being a thing, but wisely decided not to voice that opinion "Nah. It'd break Velvet's heart, and that'd break my heart, and my legs"

"your legs?"

"Coco."

"oh."

"That's not to say I don't have feelings for Velvet though, I do." I added quickly

"I know" Ruby replied

"Cool, cool, just making sure that's clear." I said

I pulled a juice box from my inventory "Juice?"

"why do you have juice?"

"I've got a few months of supplies in there, in case I get lost in the woods and feel like nuts, berries and small animals just aren't palatable... though I could probably wander the length and breath of Remnant and never _need_ to eat or sleep, so it's mostly emergency rations for you guys." I said, producing a packet of pasta for effect

"That semblance of yours sure is handy" Ruby commented, ignoring the small animals remark

"I owe my survival at beacon to it." I said "I'm given a reason to be grateful for it every day."

We just sat and enjoyed each other's company for a bit before I laughed

"What? What's so funny?" Ruby asked

"I just had a thought; Cobalt and Ruby: Partners in Geekdom" I explained "with your expertise and my technical know-how, we will build _the_ gun"

"the gun for what?"

"no, no, _the_ Gun. Whilst there will most definitely be other guns, this gun will be _The_ Gun, with a capital T on 'the'... and we'll install it in _The_ weapon, wielded by _The_ Robot" I said "and with it, we will solve all the practical problems"

"Practical Problems?"

"It's a reference."

"to what?"

"Game I used to play. They had a 'meet the cast' for every class, and the engineer was talking about how to keep some 'mean ol' motherhubbard from tearing him a structurally superfluous new behind"

"what was the solution?"

"A gun... and when that don't work, use more gun" I said, shit-eating grin a mile wide

"Really?"

"Well, just remember that you can never have enough dakka... because more than that's too much dakka, and there ain't no such 'fing"

"dakka?"

"A word for the sound a machinegun makes... more dakka means more bullets per second... and you can always strap a few extra barrels and re-tool the mechanisms for a better fire rate."

"I'm not sure that's how that works"

"Well, the only thing more awesome than a minigun is two sawed off miniguns fired in concert."

"point taken"

"Oh! I just remembered something" I exclaimed

"what's that?" Ruby asked

I produced a can of Bonk! Atomic Punch

"For science... I wanted to see what effect it had on someone with super speed. I dodged twin-minigun-dakka after drinking this stuff." I said

I saw the stars in Ruby's eyes

"Yeah... you wanna try it?" I offered

"Sure!"

Ruby took he can and drank a much as she could. I waited eagerly before she dropped the can and looked like she'd been shocked

"Ruby? Is everything alright?" I asked

I heard a high-pitched squeak before she disappeared in a flash of light and a thundering sonic boom

"Oh...oh dear" I said "what... have I done?"

* * *

 _ **Wow, okay, thanks all to those who reviewed.**_

 _ **And Sorry for the LONG Authors note, but there's a lot of thoughts to get off my chest and out to you guys.**_

 _ **But first, another Guest Review. I think I've repeatedly made a note of my disdain for having to reply to a review here.**_  
 _ **Anon said:**_ _So Velvet is in the meta-knowledge loop, and Cobalt is finally caught up with RWBY's 3rd season..._  
 _On another note, do you think Cobalt will let Velvet "Copy" the boat-load of weapons he and Lisica's has/will-have so she can be an overpowered-overpowered-overpowered Huntress?_

 _ **I intend to do so, yes. If Cobalt's dating her, and he's super OP, it seems like a stupid idea to not take a bunch of Selfies with her camera.**_

 _ **the hour is late, but I'm still technically on time... and this one is super-unedited, but we'll get to why in the big announcement, so hit that 'next chapter' button ASAP, because I have a bit of some mixed-bag news.**_


	35. Cat's out the Bag

My day was going swimmingly, beyond a few mishaps.

And then Yang slammed me into a wall.

"Cobalt, I am only going to say this once. What. The. Fuck."

"I'm sorry?"

"You know damn well what you did." Yang growled. "Now Pyrrha's suffering a panic attack because you said something to her. What was it?"

"Wait- what- oh. Heh... I suppose I _was_ about as subtle and full of tact as Nora." I admitted. "Not my best play, I'll admit, but it's true. The Volume 3 finale is capped off right at its peak as Pyrrha is cremated from the inside out."

Yang dropped me. "You mean..."

"Well, cat's out of the bag..." I said, glancing around for people listening in before grabbing Yang's head and staring her in the eye. "You are framed for unlawful assault and bad sportsmanship, Blake's boyfriend stabs the fuck out of her (she's alright), and cuts off your arm, Penny dies in a created accident right at the end of the tournament, hundreds of innocent civilians die, the White Fang invade and drag Grimm into Vale herself, the Atlesian Military is hacked and there's a concerted effort to destroy the PR of just about any and every authority figure on Remnant in a major terror attack."

Yangs eyes were wide.

"You're... you're not joking."

"I, and Ozpin are running damage control. We're monitoring the people responsible for actually actionable intel and/or proof of wrongdoings. I've blown both of Torchwick's arms off in two separate failed attempt to assassinate him, and I have Project Templar." I said "Unfortunately I can't just cap the ringleaders in the back of the head or I'd go to jail, hailed as a horrible monster or a crazy who just snapped under the pressure... and the trail leads both to Haven, and to... well... an entity credited only as Salem, who I suspect to be an Ancient Queen of the Grimm, if not _the_ Queen of the Grimm."

Yang stepped back. "Fuck. We're not ready for this." She said, curling into a small ball.

"There is no time to be ready. The time is fast approaching where we'll have to either fly on our own or die, and I plan to have invented wings by that time." I told her.

"I- I-"

I felt all kinds of negative emotions welling up. This was one of the few times I wish I didn't have a photographic memory. I was about up and ready to ignore the 'no killing' rule and just shoot the bitch and be done with it... but all our plans relied on me not undergoing a psychotic break

I grabbed Yang's hand "Come"

"Wha- where are we going?"

"I would say to a bar to drink ourselves stupid, but it's too early for that. So let's spar. I have been holding that 'little' revelation in for so long... now, now I need to do something, to blot it out... that niggling voice that says I've overstepped my bounds, that I shouldn't have done that... so I need alcohol or adrenaline running the show." I said as I teleported the two of us to an empty colloseum

"You wha-... you're sure about this?"

"More sure than my confidence in my ability to screw up everything... right now, I've screwed up and don't want to think about it." I said, teleporting us both to an empty sparring arena.

"You're not well." Yang complained.

"Not well started when Monty kicked the bucket. He was an inspirational man I looked up to, the only person on the entire Roosterteeth team I could actually name or recognize, and the creative genius behind RWBY and the world of Remnant. Not well got worse when you got framed, I was so fucking mad at it all... but I could live with that, water under the bridge. Not well got bad when I saw Penny get quartered thanks to bullshit. Not well jumped to alarming extremes when you were 'disarmed'. I am well beyond not well right now, with Pyrrha's cremation. I'm furious. I'm grieving. I'm pushing the limits of my tender sanity to try and deal with it in _any_ meaningful manner... But at the end of the day I've got to deal with it, because to stop moving forward and give in to grief is to let them win... so hit me."

I adopted an unarmed combat pose.

"The fuck? NO!" Yang said

"HIT ME!" I bellowed

"No! Cobalt, this isn't right!"

"I'm not asking to duel to the death... I know my limits, you know yours... it's not healthy, but I could be drinking myself into oblivion, which is worse... show me a good fight, Yang." I added.

"You- But... you're fighting because you're... sad." Yang said.

"I tried other things, trying to occupy myself, but nothing occupied my brain, I could still dwell on everything, and point out the myriad of things I've failed to avert already... So throw the first punch already."

"I-… I... I don't even have Ember Celica"

I grabbed Storm Bolter and threw it across the arena, followed by Raiden, the Harlequin's Kiss, the Exitus, and the fifty-odd knives I kept in my inventory. I noted the lack of Ember Celica on Yang's hands/wrists, and discarded my gloves, followed by my jacket.

"Fisticuffs" I invoked

Yang still hesitated

"I suppose, in the end, actions speak louder than words." I mused. "Come at me!"

With that, I threw a knife I'd been hiding. The knife sailed straight and true, cutting a tiny lock of hair from above Yang's ear off.

The silence was deafening.

"Did... you... just..."

"Yep. I said, popping the "p." "What are you going to do about it?"

"You MONSTER!" Yang screamed, going full super-saiyan and leaping across the arena at me.

I activated mana-muscles and used aura to anchor my feet to the ground, and even then, Catching Yang's punch forced me back at least three feet, and kicked up a shockwave that blew dust around the unswept floors

I felt a grin crawl across my face as I realized I was evenly matched with Yang.

 **You have inflicted Berserk Status. The opponent's strength has doubled**

"I have dreamt of the day I would face you in battle on even footing for a _long_ time." I mentioned.

 _(Play Song:_ Street Fighter 25th Anniversary - Guile Theme | Epic Rock Cover _)_

Yang's response was a haymaker which I deflected upwards, followed by the same on the other side, which I deflected into the floor.

I gave Yang a taste of my right hook before roundhouse kicking her back across the arena.

Yang just growled, eyes blood red.

I pulled my sunglasses from my face, before flicking them at Yang in a move I'd seen in a game.

Yang flinched but smacked the glasses aside and somehow dodged the palm-thrust I'd angled her way using Flash-step.

I swore, and then was punched across the face in another heavy-handed haymaker.

I recovered an dashed wide, circling around Yang before leaping up above her and performing a somersault axe-kick which cratered the ground next to Yang who had backflipped out the way

Yang's retaliation was another facepunch which sent me flying into the barriers at the edge of the arena

I caught myself, landing feet first thanks to my anti-grav belt.

I bellowed a wordless warcry and leaped horizontally at Yang

"I cast FIST!" I shouted as I returned the facepunch with interest.

 _ **Constant use of Mana Muscles has raised it's level to lvlMAX.**_

 _ **Mana Muscles has Ascended to "Hammer Hands"**_

 _ **Trading in control for brute strength, the Caster of Hammer Hands cannot wield any weapons or else crush the grip/handle of the weapon, but adds 2.5 times their intelligence to their STR 2.5 times their WIS to VIT.**_

"awesome, but I want a fair fight" I said, opting to forgo ludicrous strength for now, and just use plain old ridiculous strength.

I found out the hard way that Yang had used my distraction to get in and launch a shoryuken in my face, which she followed up with a massive Hadouken.

I quickly cast bio-lightning at the fireball to disperse it and twisting myself to land on my feet admist the explosion that the two interacting energies created.

I opened up with a flurry of attacks, slow at first, but as Yang began to parry or block punches and kicks, and even respond in kind, I picked up the speed until we were a blur of limbs, staying just within the upper bounds of our ability to react to blows.

It was about there that I realized we were having a pummel duel, and on occasion we were punching each other's fists... eventually it almost became a game to see hwo long we could keep that up at maximum speed before we ended with a cross-counter and had to start again.

It was glorious. Legendary. I was going to have bruises and I didn't care.

I think Yang was enjoying it too, because every now and then I could catch glimpses of a smirk playing across her face.

Honestly? We probably could've gone faster, hit harder, but this was too much fun.

I let a punch slip through so Yang could punch me in the teeth again.

As I collapsed Yang was already on top of me, but instead of pummeling my face out the back of my skull, she burst out laughing.

It was too infectious and I was in too good a mood not to, so I started laughing as well.

"no~!"

We each turned to find that JNPR and RWB were watching us duke it out

"Doesn't matter Nora, Pay up" Ren replied

"well shit, how long were you there?"

"about midway through the 'not well' rant" Blake answered "none of us actually know how we got here, one second we were going about our business, the next you're shouting at Yang about mental health issues"

"just teleported?" I asked

"Did you do something to Ruby, she's been all twitchy and hasn't made any noise other than some squeaks" Weiss said

"wait wha- hold up" I said, picking myself off the floor and making my way over to Ruby

I produced a tape recorder

"Now Ruby, can you explain, slow as you can, what you did since I gave you that energy drink?"

Ruby squeaked a few times before covering her mouth like she was embarassed

I rewound the tape and played the recording in super slow mo.

As it turns out, Ruby had noticed the shouting and had carried everyone here at almost relativistic speeds using her semblance.

"how did you know that was the issue?" Weiss asked

"I saw it happen in a kids movie, where they gave a hyperactive squirrel coffee... considering Ruby's positively normal in comparison to twitchy, though, I used something a bit more... potent. Bonk! Atomic Punch lets normal people, without assistance from aura or fancy semblances, dodge bullets... I was curious what would happen if Ruby had some because she already had super speed, and the answer is 'squirrel on cocaine'… she should calm down soon, none the worse for wear." I explained

Yang turned me around and punched me in the face.

"That's for using my sister like a guinea pig"

Another, on the other side

"That's for cutting my hair"

Then she kissed me.

"that was for the fight."

Punch drunk and suffering a shock-induced BSOD, I fainted, stammering like an idiot

* * *

Once again I rode screaming to not-Remnant's surface strapped to a chunk of metal.

After I'd woken up, and been laughed at for fainting, I'd gone and decided that today I would reclaim another piece of Astartes.

Logically, I was moving down the list.

I'd decided to forgo the usual suspects, and had opted for giving Project Templar a live field-test.

My pod was one of hundreds howling through the upper atmosphere right at that moment.

I felt the dull thud through the floor as we hit dirt, and quickly kicked the assault ramp open.

I looked around, other than my squadmates, all AI's piloting 3 metre tall suits of heavy armour, there were dozens of 7ft tall androids that greatly resembled men wearing powered armour shaped to resemble crusader knights, including the tabard which bore the black-armoured androids squad insignia, which I'd let them design, but excluding the helmet that, instead of a glorified bucket, was a sci-fi-itized 'close helm'. Each deployed in teams of six, each member, barring the squad commander, with their own role dictated more by their loadout than any personal skill.

They were my Templar, my Super Soldiers. My Men of Iron whom I placed all my hopes and dreams upon.

I prayed they wouldn't fail me.

Knowledge: Grimm, a skill I'd picked up from the amusingly titled Grimmoire, dictated that Raptors nested in gigantic hives, mercifully far away from the Kingdoms.

It also dictated that these things were completely unsubtle in how they ripped off a certain retro science fiction movie I happened to love.

The Templars formed up on the open ground in front of the imposing cylindrical structure that reached maybe five stories upwards before tapering off to a blunt point, and god knows how many stories downwards.

We minimized the size of any chances of our numerically inferior force getting surrounded, by surrounding the hive ourselves.

Before we got too close or began the fight, we set up mines, Claymores, and even had a transport deploy some heavy mortars a ways off. Why fight fair when fighting dirty ensures you live?

Eventually we were set up and staring at the hive in front of us.

"let's shake up the hive" I said

The mortars targeted and fired, their shrieking whistles piercing the silence that reigned over the soon-to-be-battlefield, before blowing a gaping hole in the side of the nest.

There was a collective screech from the hive and old school motion trackers I'd procured precisely for this fight, once I'd realized what a Raptor was in reference to, began pinging.

The first one poked it's masked, eyeless, oblong head out into open air only to find it shredded by rocket-powered, mass-reactive shells.

"Let's Rock!" I bellowed, opening up with the storm bolter into the crowd that poured out of every edifice on the hive.

* * *

 **This one hasn't been edited or grammar checked much, because we intend to replace it eventually.**

 **Progress is 3/35 chapters right now, Betas will be called in to edit as we reach completion on the rewrite.**

 **that said, have fun.**


	36. A New Awakening

The Queen looked around its throne room form atop her birthing sack.

There was an intruder in the hive. A lone human, duelling with her mighty ravager.

He would not last long. No Human ever had.

Peering through the hivemind, she saw through the ravagers mind, even correcting mistakes it's rage-addled mind made.

But for all that, she could not seem to pin anything on the human. The surest blows would simply bounce off, or they'd pass through nothing but empty air as the human moved impossibly fast.

The Queens hive memories informed her that the humans who could perform such feats were a rare and dangerous breed.

The Human's false-claw bobbed around the Ravager's mighty scythe-claws to strike at joints and gaps in the thick carapace of her champion, each strike painful, but somehow undamaging, otherwise she could have simply sprayed it with ichor and been done with it.

But no, this human seemed to oddly enough, have a whole host of abilities, rather than the one, and a whole host of weapons, as it proved with everything from throwing small false-claws to an unusually powerful fire-spitter, to what she could only describe as magic.

And as the fight dragged on, she grew more and more frustrated as the ravager began to weaken.

That was when the final strike came. A strange, glowing fire-spitter half as large as the human was, the device spat a glowing ball of blinding energy before the Queen felt the pain of her ravager dying very suddenly, an experience she had not expected to feel.

As her senses returned to her, she realized with dread that the entire hive had come to it's defence when the humans had attacked and now the last of them were being torn apart by the unusual wealth of abnormally large fire-spitters above.

Her ichor suddenly felt like it had frozen in her veins when she felt the sudden deaths of the praetorians outside her throne chamber.

She hissed and screamed her indignant rage and sorrow as the last of her children died.

When she had calmed down, she saw the Human holding it's giant magic-spitter.

"Sorry 'bout all this, but you have something I happen to need."

It's face shifted

"Game over man, Game over"

The Queen screamed as the orb of burning energy slammed into her and detonated.

* * *

"so, Ruby"

"Yeah?"

"I picked up some... interesting loot just now" I told her.

"what is it?"

I removed a pair of limbs bearing a pair of wicked-sharp scything claws.

"I hear these things punch through starship hulls, and I immediately thought of you and getting Crescent Rose to just slide through even the toughest grimm's carapace"

"what- they didn't have a Ravager, did they?" Ruby asked

"they did" I said

"how... I've only heard of three hunters, ever, who took one down"

"Most hunters had, a few teams of four people to get them through several hundred raptors. I had a nearly a dozen six-man teams setting up crossfires and killzones, and just not engaging in melee. That, combined with all the armour-tech I spent good money buying and replicating en-masse means I was able to scrape through with only a few repairs and replacements needed." I said "I also cheated"

"cheated?"

"well, I had _the_ gun. The _big_ gun" I quipped

"the big gun?"

"the B.F.G. 9000... that stands for Big Effing Gun, but with more swearing, and, really, for man-portable firepower, it's hard to go past it." I said, producing said weapon

"whoa."

"It fires exploding balls of plasma. Just point it at anything you want to go away, and you're golden. Walls? Doors? More like dynamic entrypoints. Enemies? What enemies? This thing's sufficiently big I could more than likely slay the Robot Devil with ease." I explained.

"you sound like a commercial"

"using the BFG has been known to induce spontaneous weeping, cheesiness, a propensity for overacting, and ranting and raving about ripping and tearing." I cautioned "It's so goddamned powerful I nearly one-shot the ravager and actually did one-shot the Raptor Queen... I'm probably going to just hang it over the mantlepiece, it's just too powerful... I don't trust me with it."

Ruby took a step back

"It's not loaded" I told her

Ruby still kept her distance, but she visibly relaxed, somewhat.

"I've also got two of the pieces of Astartes as well... but it's still useless. I've got the business end and the outer casing, but the blade just kinda hangs limp on it's little pivot, because it's apparently meant to fold out like a switchblade so I don't accidentally cut things... it also looks like a guandao or glaive, rather than the naginata I had." I added, pulling the piece of enamelled metal from my inventory

True to form, it was basically an overengineered guandao. The 8-foot long shaft was capped on either end with a large, bulky 'housing', the one on the 'front' of the blade was rectangular, one and a half feet long and housed the folded blade, it's pivot and a large hollow that stretched all the way through the 6-foot long, black-wrapped handle to the claw-shaped rear housing that opened up like the wing-casing of an unusually large beetle.

As it was, I could only guess what sort of mechanism fit in there, but it looked promising.

"awesome, I can't wait to see what it's like completed." Ruby said

"Neither can I..." I replied

"well, I'll let you get back to whatever you're doing."

"what're you going to do?"

"Well, I'm looking at a few projects right now. The foremost of those would be finishing up on the shadowfoxes ... uh, speaking of, if I may be a bit... er, unsavoury, You and Crescent Rose-"

I didn't recognize Ruby's expression but I knew I was in dangerous water.

"-are absolutely perfect together, and I really don't have a complaint, beyond scythe's not generally being practical weapons, but you've made it work for you and the issue is irrelevant... my issue is when you two are separated. Say I disarmed you in combat with a lucky hit or a skill, or a particularly vindictive enemy steals 'your baby' from you, what then? Can you fight in hand to hand, or are you kinda boned until you get lucky and get her back?"

Ruby was, understandably, rather off-put by the thought

"You can't throw a solid punch, can you?"

"N- No." Ruby said

"Oh jeez... sorry, I'm not trying to be mean or anything... just... I _was_ offering to hand you a Karate manual or something so you've got more options in a fight than crescent rose or support from your teammates... I carry around a dozen different weapons because I've adopted the philosophy that there's no 'perfect' or 'best weapon', and each has upsides and downsides, and as a person expecting to fight regularly and often, I need to be prepared for everything to some degree or another, and have a toold to use for everything, whether it be a packet of balloons or a set of lockpicks"

"Balloons?" Ruby asked

"They're basically the ideal tool for 'hearts and minds' tactics: you can pack a lot of them into a small space, kids love them, and they eventually pop, so they're back and asking for more soon... and, of course, you slowly become that 'nice person the kids like', and it's hard to stay gloomy and melancholy if you can see the kids are happy... and if the townsfolk are happy, that means fewer Grimm at the walls whilst you and your team clear them out. It's genius, really, if it works... and, I mean, who doesn't like balloons?" I explained.

"that's... wow... you really spend a lot of time thinking about this, don't you?"

"Not really. One day I remembered reading that in a book of anecdotes a guy who had been a soldier, police officer and more wrote, and promptly bought myself a few packs for a couple of lien." I told her "Then I promptly spent the whole packet playing with them myself and not doing anything productive for the day... so I kicked myself in the arse and bought another pack"

Ruby giggled at that.

"I have too much free time." I added "and worst of all, I can't seem to hold myself still long enough to play videogames any more."

"Videogames?"

"yeah. I got a bunch."

"Can I see?"

"what're you doing there?"

"just some homework"

"mind if I take a gander? I've memorized the textbooks."

"sure"

* * *

"Come on! Just keep moving for another three seconds and- watch out!"

*roar*

"NO!" Ruby and I both shouted as the flying wyvern on the screen knocked out her character, sending us over the maximum KO count and failing the mission for the whole party

"goddamnit, we nearly had him that time."

"you weren't kidding when you said this game was hard"

"but it's oh-so rewarding to finally slay these things isn't it?"

"oh yeah."

"Speaking of. I've got loot, and Lisica should be around here for the big unveiling soon..."

As I finished speaking, Lisica entered the commons

Lisica paused, studied my face, and reached the obvious conclusion

"I'll just stay standing, then."

I opened the system message

 _ **Raid Complete: Raptor hive of the Grassy Plains**_

 _ **Gross XP gained: 16,027,590**_

 _ **XP shared between party**_

 _ **Net XP Gained: 1,600,000**_

 _ **Level Up, Level Up, Level Up, Level Up, Level Up, Level Up, Level Up, Level Up, Level Up, Level Up, Level Up, Level Up, Level Up, Level Up, Level Up, Level Up, Level Up, Level Up, Level Up, Level Up, Level Up, Level Up, Level Up**_

 _ **Your growing strength has advanced the power of your familiar!**_

 _ **Your growing strength has advanced the power of your familiar!**_

 _ **For achieving level 80, your familiar as achieved the maximum strength available to her species.**_

Lisica and I exchanged a glance, our emotions a mix of joy, excitement, and dread during the brief moment before the tails split as they gathered the power to do so.

Lisca's tails split again, two at once, giving her a fan of nine.

As they settled into place, something 'clicked' inside Lisica, like the last gear in a mechanism had just found it's place in the greater whole.

The floodgates cracked slightly, before they shattered

Ruby and I felt the wave of energy as a physical force, my greatcoat and Ruby's cape flapping about in the 'wind' and a lot of small objects around the room were blown about and into the far walls

I noted with some amusement that Ray, who had been in the middle of one of his more successful sneak attacks, had been blown across the room by the sudden gale.

Lisica was lifted by the swirling cosmic forces.

"I see everything... I know everything... I _am_ everything! I. am. the Kyuubi no Kitsune!"

And with that proclamation, the whirlwind stopped... and was replaced by the sudden appearance of Aurum

"Jesus fuck, what the hell? We just got energy readings off the charts!"

"Lisica just became a Kyuubi" I explained

Aurum 'blinked' (if her eyebrow ridge was anything to go by) and nodded slowly.

"what's a Kyuubi?" Ruby asked

"the word itself means 'nine tails'. Kyuubi no Kitsune literally translates to 'Nine-Tailed Fox', and they're supposed to be ultra-rare and super-powerful, since they're so old. They're also messengers for the Shinto god Inari Okami, who governs... well, in a word, Prosperity... and people pray to the foxes at shrines and that, asking for boons and that in exchange for gifts, typicall money and food."

"You studied Shinto?" Aurum asked

"I studied Kitsune after I got the internet and realized Lisica was one so I knew what I was in for... which lead to Inari Okami, which, interestingly, led to sushi"

"Sushi?"

"Specifically Inarizushi, and I'm sure you can guess who it's named for, which is a pouch of fried tofu filled with rice... see it's believed to be a Kitsune's favourite food and Inari himself is supposed to have a fondness for Tofu... so I was saving it for a treat."

"For Lisica?"

"well, Lisica did leave some 'relics' behind when she shapechanged me. What's the bet that this is, to me, what cookies are to you?"

Ruby laughed a little bit

"Liz, do you have any connection to Inari?" I asked

"You should know the answer to that." Lisica replied

"Just asking in case you know something I don't... any new spells coming to mind for your Ki?"

"I'm looking now, I'll let you know if I find something" Lisica said, scrolling through what I knew to be a status screen even if I couldn't see it.

"I was thinking we could make this a bit of a 'coming of age party'. Invite some of the gang around, have a little fun, enjoy some music, all that good stuff."

"Shall I prepare the commons, sir?" Charles asked

"If you could, Charles." I replied "Get some help if you need it, but we'll keep this low-key, just some friends, a cake, maybe something fun to do if it gets that far"

"As you wish, sir."

"...I am still not used to having a Butler... or being called sir... it's... odd."

* * *

 **I feel like I got lost and dawdled slightly in this one but... I can't really help it.**

 **On that note, I just re-checked a bunch of sources, and when googling about Kitsune as trickster gods, I stumbled across the Pathfinder Race, which, of course, has a much more structured design than my freehand stuff, given what skills Kitsune can learn...**

 **...and I've found some interesting points that might turn up during the party.**

 **edit: Holy fuck, I thought this was a good chapter? what was I thinking?  
note to self: ensure minimum alertness before attempting to write chapters.  
I'm kinda glad I'm rewriting this story now... I've been stonewalled on chapter 3 which is being just... difficult... but I hope to make some progress soon.**


	37. The Party

"Wait, wait, wait. Run that past me again."

"The concept is simple: Lisica's grown her ninth tail and become a lesser Shinto deity known as the Kyuubi no Kitsune, which, roughly translated, means Nine-Tailed Fox... so, basically, Lisica's fully grown now, and I was thinking of throwing an impromptu 'Coming of Age' party in celebration."

"A God?" Weiss asked, incredulous.

"No, no. Kitsune are more akin to... spirits, or Fey creatures like elves, fairies, changelings, and other assorted cryptids. Kitsune serve Inari, the god of prosperity. Kyuubi are so powerful that occasionally you'll see someone offer worship to them, seeking boons or whatever from the foxes." I explained.

"I'm lost" Yang said.

"It's simp- well, the message has been muddied a bit. The short version is, Lisica's hit full maturity for Kitsune, and we were going to throw a small party to celebrate that, like a 'coming of age party', and we were hoping you, as friends, could come along." I clarified. "We've got snacks, and I'll grab a cake once I've mentioned this to JNPR."

"We've got to plan out the Formal." Yang said.

"Liz and I were going to ring the whole thing in the 'traditional' manner for Coming of Age ceremonies." I mentioned.

"What does that mean, traditi- oh." Weiss said.

"Yes."

"Well, I don't know about Weiss, but this is one opportunity I'm not going to miss." Yang exclaimed cheerfully.

"But we still have so much to do!" Weiss protested.

"I can loan a Mr. Handy or two to get everything up to snuff... they're handy like that." I offered.

Weiss was somewhere between grateful and wanting to strangle me for the joke.

In the end, she just punched my chest half-heartedly.

"So, anywhom, I've still got errands to run, like passing on invites to JNPR, and Blake -since Ruby's already up there helping out- and grabbing the cake, so now might be a good time to test out those VIP access keys I gave you. Just a little pulse of your aura, it has to be yours, the cards are keyed to you to prevent theft, on the metal bit and you should find yourself-"

Yang vanished in a gold-coloured distortion in the air.

"So, yeah, basically that."

* * *

As I carried cake through the doors to the VIP commons, I saw teams RWBY and JNPR, as well as Ravaora, who somehow made it up here, were all up and the party had indeed started... unfortunately CFVY couldn't make it, as they were away on a mission that would run overtime.

However, instead of the nine guests and four homebodies (Liz, Charles, Lily and Ray), I counted a few extras.

I stashed the cake and drew my Storm Bolter in the same action.

"Who the fuck are you, and how did you get in here?!" I asked, making no secret of my hostility.

The figure was surprisingly calm. She, which I could only really tell from the clothes (a long red kimono with very wide sleeves, detailed with stylized white-and-black cherry blossoms), and was obviously a Kitsune of some sort, though the black fox ears and long hair that reached to her lower back clashed with the pure, snow-white fox-tails spread out in a fan behind her, the tips all pointed at me.

"Calm down, calm down." the stranger said.

I quickly counted the tails. Then I counted them again. Now very confused, I counted them a third time.

"Impossible." I said.

"Oh?"

"A Juubi? It only goes up to Nine unless- ...no." I said, narrowing my eyes. "It couldn't be."

"Oh yes, very much so." The being smirked.

"You wouldn't happen to be... Inari Okami, by any chance?" I asked.

"I'm glad to see you've done your homework" Inari said. "Yes, it's me."

"What's a shinto god doing all the way out here?"

"I'm here to join in the festivities" Inari replied with a smile

"Well, I'm sorry about the hostilities... uh, sir."

"It's no bother. I should've called ahead, really, but I thought that it would be such a wonderful surprise." Inari said.

"Well, I can definetly say I'm surprised."

"I thought you might."

"If I may, I'm... er, 'opposed' to a group of individuals in a sort of 'cold war' that's about to go hot. This organization possesses mostly unknown capabilities... so-"

"You want to know if I'm the 'real deal'?" Inari surmised.

"Yeah... god knows if one of those bastards is a shapeshifter or able to mimic, say, Liz." I said.

Inari's palms glowed for a moment before reaching and putting them on my temples.

I saw... everything, for a brief moment, the sheer rush of information made it confusing, and headache inducing, but... powerful. I spent a good while after the contact ended trying to put it all together.

"That's... that was omniscience... a second of seeing everything in the world at once." I said. "...I'm inclined to believe that you're who you say you are. My apologies for the gun, I'm not used to uninvited guests in my fortress that exists outside reality."

Inari just smiled at me.

I stashed my gun and drew my cake.

"Well, I brought cake. Anyone want cake?" I asked.

* * *

After we'd all had cake and passed judgement that Caramel Mudcake was awesome, things kinda wound down into enjoying the music, or having a go at Guitar Hero, including the other Kitsune, who were alternating between fawning over Lisica (which was making her decidedly uncomfortable), and looking at all the interesting things I had in the living space up here.

Meanwhile I cornered Inari.

"So, what brings a Shinto god all the way out to my little slice of Remnant?" I asked; cordial, but straight to the point.

Inari laughed "Why, you and Lisica of course."

"I'd kinda figured that. Why? And why now and not earlier?" I questioned.

"You expect me to not be at least curious when one of my children connects to me from another world?" Inari asked.

"So you only just became aware of Liz?" I asked.

"And you." Inari added.

"Through the spirit bond or-"

"Mostly through that... Of course once I reealized she was out here, it didn't take me long to see you."

"What does that mean?"

"With your lifeforce bleeding so heavily to sustain Lisica, and with such a close bond... well, you've surely noticed it by now." Inari said cryptically.

"Noticed it- you don't mean these do you?" I asked, removing my sunglasses and gloves so Inari could see the mutations.

"Yes, those exactly... why do you hide them?" Inari asked, sounding genuinely curious.

"Same reason Blake hides hers; because faunus aren't particularly well liked in a bunch of places. It's best most people don't know." I said.

"Blake? Ah, I see, the one with the bow. Interesting."

"Yep, that's her."

"Well that's no good then. I presume they don't take this lying down."

"Nope. There was a big war for faunus rights not too long ago... there's still some lingering resentment about that, and there's one or two organizations that're active today... One of the organizations I've got myself pitted against started off as such, in fact. Mostly peaceful protests until a change in leadership to a rather bloodthirsty moron led to protests becoming riots, boycotts becoming vandalism and much more... now, they're about to take the leap from vandalism and organized crime to big-league terrorism."

"I see... I might have to do something about that then. Seems that there is much justice to mete out."

"Before you do, why are you here?"

"Do you know the difference between a Kitsune and a Nogitsune?"

"The Nogitsune are *ahem* 'No Good'?" I asked.

Inari laughed. "I like you already."

"Heh, I call 'em how I see 'em... but in all seriousness, if Kitsune do the Robin Hood thing, then the Nogitsune are common bandits, preying on the weak and faithful as opposed to teaching humility to corrupt tyrants and the like."

"That's the major difference, yes"

"The other would be that the Kitsune serve you while the Nogitsune are 'wild'." I added "...which means you're here to officially swear her in, aren't you?"

"Precisely."

"And, of course, your powers as a Kami mean that this promise is going to be unbreakable as well."

"Of course... and you've assembled a nice number of witnesses as well, for you and your 'sister'."

"Me?"

"I doubt you'll actually become a full Kitsune, your potential lies elsewhere, but it's hard to imagine you staying as you are right now."

"I suppose I'm not opposed to the Paladin's oath. Upholding Justice and the like.

"Begging your pardon, Sir and Madam, but the snacks are ready." Charles suddenly interrupted

"Oh, right, of course. I'll be right there." I replied offhandedly.

"Snacks- is that what I think it is?" Inari asked, sniffing the air.

"I never tried this stuff before today... and if the smell's anything to judge by, I've been missing out." I said.

Inari just smiled.

* * *

"Well, now that you're finished demolishing that sushi, I believe we can begin." Inari told us

"What?" Ruby asked.

"I had a chance to ask a few questions earlier. Apparently Inari wants to swear us in as official members of the clan." I said

There were a few surprised gasps.

"The best part is that Inari was hoping you'd be here to witness it." I informed them. "Not sure who'd call this sort of thing into question, but it's there, y'know?"

"You?" Weiss asked.

"Apparently."

"Right, so I need each of you to put forth one hand and repeat after me" Inari began "I-"

"I Cobalt-"

"I Lisica-"

* * *

As the oaths came to an end, the swirling bands of magic around my outstretched hand tightened, and I felt the magic suddenly clamp down.

It felt like I couldn't breathe.

"It'll be difficult at first." Inari said.

"I- I can barely breathe." I said.

"That'll wear off." Inari added.

"You- I-" I said before focusing on simply getting air in my lungs.

Lisica was having an easier time of it, the sensation like she was wearing tight clothes rather than having a vice around her chest... I chalked it up to Lisica being a Kitsune and my being mortal.

"Does... Does this make me... some sort of p-…. Paladin? or a warlock?" I asked between deep gasps for air.

Inari paused for a moment.

"A mortal champion dedicated to executing my will upon the land in my stead..." Inari mused "Well, since you asked so nicely, I give you my blessing."

"Wait, wha-"

 _ **With the combined blessings of the Spirits, Humanity and the Gods, and by swearing an unbreakable holy oath of fealty to the gods you have become a Paladin.**_

 _ **You have gained the following spells as boons of your Deity:**_

 _ **Akasic Teachings: The sight of and control of Ki energy. Experienced practitioners can use Ki energy to project bolts of force and project shields, heal wounds and move objects without touching them.**_

 _ **Meditation: The ability to clear the mind and focus inwards on one's inner energies. This skill increases mana regen, and with practice will allow for simultaneous tasks to be performed, with greater levels allowing greater complexity of the task, in addition to greater mana regeneration**_

 _ **Elemental Magic: There are thirteen basic elements and learning to control each allows one to perform many great feats.**_  
 _ **You have been granted limited control of Four elements: Fire, River, Celestial and Music**_  
 _ **The following Spells are now available:**_  
 _ **-Kitsunebi: a Kitsune specialty, the ability to create and control fire, though at a short range.**_  
 _ **-Lifewaters: the River is a lifegiving element, and controlling River allows one to cleanse impurities and heal injuries.**_  
 _ **-Mandate: By using the Celestial element, which represents magic and the power of heaven, A Celestial mage can call upon magical creatures with a divine mandate to lend assistance.**_  
 _ **-Bardic Song: By manipulating the Music element, a caster can sing to increase the morale of nearby allies and demoralize the enemy.**_

 _ **Feng Shui: This is the study of Geomancy. Sites of power, and ley lines are a large part of this magic. With this, a person can find out the best way to build on a site, creating a location of power, or a means to tap into a leyline or a nexus. This allows someone to travel the Dragon Lines (ley lines) to get from location to location, and also allows them to tap the line for power.**_

 _ **Ju-Fo: This is runic magic. With this, a mage can write the words of power, or call them out to create magic effects. These are also good for warding places, banishing or controlling spirits, and binding sites.**_

"Thanks... Thanks a thou- A thousand times." I said.

Inari smiled, obviously used to such praise.

"No, really... this might just... just be what my... what my magic ne- needed." I said.

"Omniscient god." Inari reminded me.

"Still bears me- mentioning... I need to go... go lay dow- down." I said.

"That's probably for the best." Lisica said, helping me walk, stiffly, to the bedrooms.

As Lisica returned, she found Inari waiting for her.

"Now, this is a gift I offer all my Kitsune." Inari told her.

"Omniscience." Lisica said "It's the one ability I should have as a Kyuubi that I can't use."

"Correct. That's because I give it as a gift to all the Kyuubi." Inari replied.

"There's a catch, isn't there."

"I see all that Intelligence Cobalt purchased is being put to good use. Yes, I know about that. The 'catch', as you put it, is that you would become my handmaiden."

"And I couldn't spend time with Cobalt any more?" Lisica asked

"This place exists in a pocket dimension, something the Kitsune can not only enter and exit with ease, but also duplicate in it's entirety." Inari said "You would not be so restricted as to never see your 'brother', as I hear he puts it, but you would be beholden to me in the spirit realm.

Lisica carefully considered the offer.

"No."

Inari raised an eyebrow.

"Cobalt and I have worked hard to put this place together, to produce it's inhabitants, and to prepare for the coming storm. Maybe, once this fight is done, and Cobalt and I have banished the Grimm, maybe when he and I have completed our life's work. But, for now, I'm afraid I'll have to decline your generous offer. There's simply too much riding on this to swear into non-intervention."

Inari smiled.

"I see. I know of what injustices Cinder and her fellows will cause, and I can see that their wickedness must be punished. Go forth then, my daughter, and see that they meet justice."

Lisica bowed "I shall."

When Lisica stood up straight again, Inari presented her with a sheathed katana.

On the scabbard was the Kanji for Justice in gold lettering on the black sheathe which had been polished to an almost mirror-sheen.  
it didn't take a genius to figure out what the sword's name was.

Lisica shot a deadpan look at Inari.

"I'd expect something like that from Cobalt." She said.

"Let it never be said I don't have a sense of humour." Inari replied as she disappeared suddenly in a flash of golden light.

Lisica blinked the spots out of her eyes for several moments before considering the Katana before her, checking that Inari hadn't handed her half a katana or a bokken disguised as a katana, before sheating it and stashing it in her inventory.

"Fuck this, I need a beer."


	38. Dance, Dance, Infiltration

As I woke up with a groan, I felt the 'weight' of my oaths pressing down on my body still. Looks like this would take a few days to wear off at the minimum.

At least breathing felt easier.

Stiffly, and with some effort, I glanced over at my watch.

It was still morning at least.

I then absently checked the date...

"Wasn't something supposed to happen tod-" I said to myself before remembering.

"Fuck!" I shouted, throwing back the covers and getting up, dressing for the day with the push of a button.

* * *

"What? What happened?" Lisica asked.

She smelled coffee, which probably meant Cobalt was up...

"I checked the security footage when I found you like that... nothing much, You and Raven shot up the range a bit, hit on some of the men, got lost in engineering until Virgil showed you out when he realized you were drunk and not just acting weird, and then kinda passed out here. Doesn't hold a candle to my escapades with Fenrisian Ale, but I only had a small glass of the stuff." Cobalt informed her.

Lisica lifted her head off the drool-soaked bar and saw that Cobalt had prepared a hangover cure.

"Try using Lifewaters on the bottle." Cobalt suggested. "Might help cleanse your system."

Lisica did as he suggested and felt the headache rescind somewhat, but not completely

"Nothing for it then. Just drink a lot, I'll wake up Miss hellfire and brimstone."

As Lisica sipped at her drink, she heard angry snarling from the other side of the bar, followed by an eldritch bolt obliterating a cupboard.

"Tetchy." Was all Cobalt said as he returned.

As the water was finished, Lisica moved onto the coffee. One thing she had inherited from Cobalt was his caffeine addiction and it was good to cover bases.

"What day is it?" Lisica asked, reading his mind slightly.

"Thursday."

"What was so- oh crap."

"My thoughts exactly."

"Well, Velvet won't get here until after the dance." Lisica said.

"Dance dance infiltration: I still need to be up on that tower to stop Castle from being uploaded."

"Oh crap. I nearly forgot." Lisica said.

"I'll let you sober up for a bit here, I'll jump down to the armoury and be back momentarily, then we'll go find something to wear." I told Lisica.

* * *

Lisica whistled as I stepped out of the changing rooms. "You clean up nice."

I adjusted my collar and cuffs slightly. It was a classic formal suit, not a tux. Tuxedoes have a nasty habit of making me look like one of the serving staff. I'd gone with a vermillion tie, as a sort of show of my newfound 'faith'.

"I'll take that as high praise." I said. "You don't look too bad yourselves."

"Speak for yourself. I look like some noble's second mistress." Raven said.

Ravaora wore a sleeveless, orange vest-like shirt and plain black skirt that reached to her ankles. It was simple, plain, and wasn't revealing or anything. A clear sign of those generic-late-medieval-European-Fantasy-setting morals showing... not that it looked bad, and the demonic heritage really didn't lend itself to great shows of beauty.

Lisica had gone with a slim, cobalt blue, body-fitting dress, cinched at the waist with a golden sash with the kanji for 'fox' literally painted with vermillion paint just off-centre to the left. It was flashy and instantly eye-catching... because there really wasn't any hiding Lisica any more, she seemed to radiate ki power constantly, and I'd noticed one or two attendants looking at her, trying to figure her out.

"You look fine. The point is to dress up..., and the outfit could've gone a lot more risque. I'd suggest finding a date to take to the dance, but, honestly, and I mean this in the nicest possible manner, you kinda scare _me."_

"And what's that supposed to mean?" Ravaora said.

"I pity the man who fails in an attempt to court you. I'd say more, but I've seen what happens when you say stuff like that to a woman's face." I said.

"A wise move." Ravaora noted with a satisfied smirk on her face.

"That said, I would advise... opening up, a little more. Not saying you have to, but maybe give someone a chance to, y'know, not be a total douche... except Cardin. Cardin is as bad as you think he is." I said.

Ravaora raised an eyebrow at me.

"Azura Incident."

Ravaora chuckled before laughing softly as she remembered what I was getting at.

"Anywhom, we should be set for the night, unless you want to practice makeup, in which case I'll go looking for a skillbook. I'm shit at it, and I know that means Liz is as well."

"Well, actually-"

"I'll go arrange some finances." I said, de-equipping the suit and heading for the counter to pay.

* * *

"Wow, Cobalt, You came." Ruby said. "I thought with Velvet still on her mission and all-:

"I was really antisocial last time I did high school. I missed all my socials and all my formals, barring the one that was also my graduation." I informed the girl. "I was looking to turn that around."

"You- uh, okay then."

there was an awkward pause

"What flavour's the Punch?" I asked

"Oh, uh, Raspberry" Ruby replied, indicating the cup in her hand

"Nice."

"Where's Lisica?"

"She'll be along in a second. She wanted to do some last-minute preparations." I said

"Last minute preparations?"

"She's on her way, said she'd meet up with me here so it didn't look like I was dating her or whatever." I said before leaning in close and whispering "-and, just between you and me, I picked up the skill for applying makeup specifically so Liz could do it tonight."

Ruby raised an eyebrow.

"Shared knowledge. What I know, she knows." I explained

It was about then that Lisica showed up.

"Wow." Ruby said.

With Lisica's 'fox-faced' features -narrow face, close-set eyes, thin eyebrows and high cheekbones- enhanced with subtle makeup -a bit of eyeliner here, some blush there, and touch of lipstick- she really was a sight to behold, and she moved with a natural poise and grace that was equal parts inherent and a result of purposefully walking that way with 150 dexterity after we'd also nabbed a book on ballroom etiquette (the books were going two-for-one-point-five, how was I to resist?)

She'd have almost radiated elegance if it hadn't already been for her aura of ki, which lent an air of strange, otherworldliness to her instead.

It's really hard to overstress how she looked.

Thankfully the 'ki aura' was short-ranged, but Lisica still drew a few gazes as she sat herself down to one side. It wasn't long before someone had asked her to dance with him and she obliged, rapidly stacking levels on _ballroom dancing_.

Ravaora followed not long after.

Ravaora exuded an aura of 'I don't want to be here', even if she did actually look rather attractive herself in that 'forbidden fruit' sort of way. The horns, tail and unusual skin-pigment just screamed 'danger', and I didn't doubt that some thrill seeker would probably give her a chance... I'd seen stranger fetishes, and heard of ones worse than those.

"Remind me how you managed to talk me into this?" She asked me.

"You were hungover and I believe the exact words were 'yes, anything if you'll just freaking go away'... except you didn't say freaking." I replied.

Ravaora just grumbled as she headed into the ball, grumbling about me and my "freaking" smugness and all the 'glowy learning magic' I'd put us all through.

Ruby just gave me a look.

"Like it or not, she needs to go out and meet people, y'know? She's rough, yeah, but she's not a lost cause." I said. "I suppose the idea is to overcome her aversion to people by exposing her to them so she can build up a 'tolerance'… I'm mostly just winging her resocialization, and just taking opportunities as they arise."

"Right."

"Anywhom, I'm off to join the dance. Good Luck, Have Fun." I said.

"You too."

* * *

"...so then I said "Ozpin is Ozpout to go demolish a plate of cookies."… of course, Goodwitch didn't take that too well." I told my enthralled audience of three.

"what did Goodwitch do?" One of them asked

"I was TK'ed -er, telekinesis'd, out the window and fell five stories to land in a tree, hit what felt like every branch on the way down, and then face-planted... totally worth it, either way, the look on her face was absolutely priceless." I said.

My scroll rang.

"Ah, hold on, this could be important." I told them as I answered.

"Y'ello?"

 _"Red Queen's making her move."_

"A'ight, I'll be there soon. Thanks." I said.

I turned to my audience "Thank you all for listening, unfortunately something super-important has just turned up." I said.

I exited the main hall and ducked into a bathroom before switching my suit out for a hooded, black, longjacket and a familiar silver-and-gold mask.

"Time for Solitaire to make a new acquaintance" I said, adopting a more musical-sounding accent more befitting a Harlequin... I was going to have to learn something like Solresol, just to really put someone's head through the wringer.

* * *

Cinder stepped out of the elevator to find something she hadn't been expecting.

There, next to a pair of unconscious guards, was a tall man dressed in black, their identity concealed by a horned, silver, androgynous mask, and hood, sitting on the shaft of a spear buried in the ground at an angle

"I was honestly wondering when you'd show up." The figure said in a deep, bass voice with an almost musical lilt to it's voice.

Cinder was immediately on guard. Was this the person messing with her operations?

"You may call me Solitaire." The figure said "I have been waiting to meet you for a long time, Cinder Fall."

Cinders eyes narrowed. How much did he know?

"Of course, we don't take lightly to those who betray their entire species. Whatever your bargains are with Salem, know that I intend to stop them."

Cinders eyes widened. He knew about that?

He had to die. Now.

In a flash of black glass, Cinder lashed out with her daggers, but somehow Solitaire caught the strike, his hands moving faster than she could see, his grip like an iron vice.

With a flex, Cinder felt her wrist being crushed under Solitaire's hand.

"Know this, Miss Fall, I do not take kindly to you, your schemes, or your deeds."

Cinder saw the haymaker coming from a mile away and a hand on the inside of his elbow stopped him short before she headbutted him.

"You're lucky I padded the inside of this fucking mask!" Solitaire said.

So he was a kid playing at being a hero.

Solitiare brought a gigantic rifle to bear in less than a second.

Cinder was already moving to dodge when the massive rifle gave a whisper-quiet bark and the wall behind her exploded as a Nitro-sized round smashed into it.

Solitiare racked the bolt, ejecting a spent shell half as large as his forearm, and fired again.

'just who is this guy?' Cinder thought as she dodged and fired a trio of arrows at Solitaire.

Solitaire moved faster than the eye could see, putting almost half the width of the CCT between him and her before letting loose with that gigantic sniper rifle of his.

Cinder immediately knew that she had to close the gap. If Solitaire could keep kiting her, eventually he'd either run out of ammo or her luck would run out and she'd be killed or injured... those rounds would chew through a Goliath, let alone her aura.

She used some of her power and launched an explosive fireball at Solitaire, who immediately fired a round into it, detonating it early.

A smart move, but one that forced him to take his eyes off of her.

Immediately she ducked behind a bank of computers and began sneaking up on Solitaire, who seemed to have realized that she had dropped out of sight... but was looking in the complete wrong direction.

'Fool' she thought to herself as she moved behind him, intending to bury a dagger into his back.

At the last moment, Solitaire turned around and caught her knives with a pair of Sais.

"You breathe so loud I could have shot you in perfect darkness," Solitaire said. "To say nothing of the Ki you radiate. I knew where you were without ever having to look in your direction."

Cinder narrowed her eyes before pushing more force into the 'lock.'

Solitaire leisurely popped the joints in his neck with a flick of his head, before sharply and violently twisting the Sais, the guards working to lever her own knives out of her hands, whilst simultaneously flicking his arms downwards, which allowed him to headbutt her back.

Cinder fell backwards, dazed from the strike, as Solitaire stood over her, ready with a heavy pistol the size of a cantaloupe to shoot her.

"Check. Ma- ow" Solitaire said, attempting to deliver a witty one-liner before she kicked him in the family jewels.

A second kick swept his feet out from under him and an arrow in his throat from a newly-formed bow silenced him for good.

"Poor fool. Next time, shoot first." Cinder said.

Cinder knew that she didn't have much time left, so she slotted her Scroll into the nearest computer and was about to activate the transfer when she heard muffled laughing

Her eyes shot back to Solitaire standing back up, arrow still in his throat, as Solitaire pressed a remote detonator. Suddenly every computer in the CCT sparked, smoked, and was destroyed as even the emergency lights shorted out... including her scroll.

Solitaire ripped the arrow from his throat which was immediately whole and perfect again, somehow.

"I hope you have a backup copy of Castle... because I've just fried every piece of electronic equipment in here with a localised EMP. I'm a very sore loser." Solitaire said.

Cinder screamed in anger at this meddling kid and prepared to fill him so full of arrows he resembled a porcupine.

"Freeze!" She shouted.

Both heads turned to simultaneously realize that Ruby had arrived with Crescent Rose and had it's gun form pointed at them.

Cinder readied a shot at the interloper, before Solitaire punched her in the gut hard enough that she felt her aura drop dangerously low and her shot went wide, before he slammed her head into the nearby desk, lifted her head back up, grabbed her face and slammed it into the ground, threw her into the air, grabbed her ankle slammed her back into the ground, threw her back up again, let go so she was spinning in midair and gave her a double-footed kick out the windows in the space of about two seconds.

Luckily she was still airborne when she recovered enough to react to being kicked out the CCT. Partially owing to the fact that the CCT was so tall, the rest that Solitaire had seemingly kicked her as hard as he could.

With a silk rope tied to an arrow, she quietly descended the last few dozen feet to the ground and immediately collapsed due to the pain caused by her injuries. Her head alone rang like someone was pounding on it with a hammer... which, for all it had been through, was a more apt description than usual, and it felt like she had more than one broken rib.

People would notice that she was gone. Her 'perfect alibi' was spoiled, the CCT would take months of repairs, and if this Solitaire person was working with Ozpin, she was compromised... and if he knew about Salem, then he knew about the whole plan.

...and if he knew the plan, she would need to bait Solitaire out and take care of him, lest he de-rail the whole plot.

* * *

"Stop!" Ruby shouted at me.

I coughed in reply, that arrow had really tickled my tonsils (which was particularly impressive as I'd had them removed when I was five.)

As soon as I had regained my composure after an embarrassingly long time, I put both my hands up in the universal gesture of surrender.

"Ruby, it's *cough* it's me." I said.

"Cobalt?!"

"I was trying to stop that woman from uploading a super-virus onto the CCT." I explained. "I had to resort to Plan B"

"Plan B?"

"Check it. Every bit of computer equipment for... I think it was three hundred, is fried, every wire melted, every lightbulb exploded... I used an EMP- an Electromagnetic Pulse- to overload every last scrap of electronic equipment in here... including the circuit boards inside the computers..." I said. "when she pointed the bow at you... I kinda lost my temper"

"You- You destroyed the CCT!" Ruby said.

"Yeah, focus on that, rather than why I did it, or what doing that prevented, or that I might be willing and able to fix it using shit on Outer Heaven, for almost none of the cost and a fraction of the time."

"What?" Ruby asked.

"What did you think I had that old thing around for? Because I don't just build giant space stations and a legion of construction-grade robots for shits and giggles... given some shit I've paid through the nose for, the CCT would be almost child's play to repair if I can get schematics... and assuming the whole thing doesn't explode because I disabled an unstable power generator." I said. "because it might take a day or two to rebuild it if it does that."

"You-"

"Oh, look, they're here already." I said, noting as the first of the Mr. Handies who normally ran things on Outer heaven began to arrive via teleporter to replace broken computer equipment with functionally identical copies, along with perimeter security made to look like a current-issue Atlesian combat mech to keep nosy-folk out.

Construction would continue well into tomorrow, but these guys were industrious, dedicated, and knew the stakes if this wasn't done soon.

"I don't have a lot of rules, per se, but I make a point of always have a well thought-out plan, and a policy about fixing or replacing anything I happen to break that isn't mine." I said. Well, except for Cardin's face. I was still mad about the whole Azura incident.

We spectated the Mr. Handies for a few moments, watching them pull the computing equipment out, and seeing them haul in specially built replacement parts I had had made beforehand whilst I was planning my angle of attack on Cinder.

"Why do you do all this?" Ruby asked.

"I'm sorry?"

"The robots, the fighting, all the magic, all of it. Why?" Ruby asked.

"Where'd that come from?" I asked.

"You're going to, frankly, insane lengths just to throw a wrench in this plot. Why? Not just anyone teaches themselves how to build a Robot army to stop a secret war."

Ruby saw my confused look.

"You mentioned it once or twice." Ruby said.

"Oh... well, to answer you question I suppose it's... well... that's one's rooted in a lot of emotions, something I'm just no good with." I said.

"I suppose it's because I'm this big softie at heart, y'kn- actually, that's not quite right, I'm too... introverted? I guess that's the word... it's... I... suppose I could just be desperate for love and affection, deep down, inside... and whilst I don't give you random hugs and tell you how much you mean to me, because, let's face it, that's kinda weird... well, I dunno, I guess I've gone and gotten attached to you guys."

"Oookay"

"I know that paints me in a horrible light, but... okay, I've got nothing... I suppose, that's what happens when you look for the truth of 'you'. It's ugly, doesn't always work correctly, or even make sense." I said "this is a self-diagnosis, so it's not necessarily accurate, but I'm trying to be as brutally honest as I possibly can be, and Dr. Jin; MD, says I secretly crave love and affection."

"You?"

"I'm not good at showing it. I was, as you can probably tell, the weird kid at school, so I never had many friends, and was relentlessly picked on until I moved towns to the middle of nowhere. To me, finding someone who'll put up with my... idiosyncrasies is a rare blessing, one that doesn't come often, and I'd sooner catch a canonball with my face than see the canon pointed at you." I said "As horrible as that sounds, what I'm trying to say is that I don't let anyone hurt those I care for. Not even those I care for."

"That's-"

"Who I am. At my core being." I said, interrupting Ruby. "It's what you get when you strip it all down and boil away the impurities. Read into the psychology of that all you want, but put simply, that's my core motivation: to be loved by those around me and... building off that, to protect those I love."

Ruby didn't reply, she just gave me a hug.

"Heh, thanks." I said, wrapping an arm around her in return.

We stayed like that for a moment, just watching the Mr. Handies work and enjoying each other's company.

"That said, now you know all that, you know my super-secret weakness, and can utterly destroy me by- oh crap, is that the time?!" I exclaimed.

"What?"

"We've only got an hour left of school dance! Remember how I said I had a really shit school life? I am not fucking this one up, let's go, I'll fire off a message to Ozpin explaining the situation and we can enjoy the last of the dance." I said.

"Wait, Cobalt! You're still in your costume!" Ruby said as I grabbed her hand.

I blinked and looked down.

"Ah crap, right, well, I can change that quick enough. I need you to close your eyes and count to three, okay?"

"What, here? In front of me?"

"That's why I asked you to close your eyes, dummy." I deadpanned.

Ruby closed her eyes and I quickly re-equipped my costume.

"Done, done and done." I said, quickly wiping the sweat from my brow and making sure my hair looked nice.

Ruby blinked.

"Yeah, Gamer is just so convenient at times." I said, half-bowing and offering Ruby my hand. "Shall we go to the ball, my lady?"

Ruby raised an eyebrow.

"Italian Renaissance play-acting, alright. That shit would've been downright charming if you were Weiss." I said.

Ruby laughed.

"Yeah, yeah, laugh it up." I said. "you coming or what? The elevator's lost power, so we'll be heading down either the hard way, or I just blink us down there with flash."

Ruby contained her laughter long enough to grab my hand so I could teleport us both.

When we arrived, we simply walked back around the corner and re-entered the party, which, I noted with satisfaction, was lacking any sign of Cinder.

'Awesome' I thought to myself.

* * *

 **I'm actually somewhat proud of this chapter. I feel like I did a good job...**

 **it's also the last complete one as of the time of publishing, before we get started on the rewrite. I'll see if I can cap off Chapter 38 (numbered to not count the Christmas Special), and post that sometime in the next week, and then get started on the rewrite... I have an idea about how I want to do that as well. so far we've got Chapter 4 coming along nicely. There would be more, but thanks to some Yoshtar-Grade laziness and lack of will to just get past this one patch of dialogue in chapter 3... yeah... that and it took me nearly a year to get to this point the first time around... and all these new games came out that were just so fascinating, and then there's this one guy on youtube whose videos I haven't binge-watched just yet... you get the picture.**

 **Feedback will be especially important in the rewrite, because if people deem the first few chapters of the old version better, that leaves me in an awkward position, and I might end up having to simply retcon a lot of shit.**

 **And so we come to a crossroads, and I see nothing but endless branching paths... let us hope we choose the best one to walk down.**


	39. Chapter 38: The Return of GfG

**No, this is not a trick.**

 **After months of uninspired nothing... My Mum made an off-hand comment asking if I was working on the next chapter or 'just chatting'.**

 **As it was, I was just chatting... or freestyle roleplaying, whatever... but that got me to thinking, and, coupled with a set of reviews mentioning how the first five chapters were the 'black sheep' of the family, and since rewriting the whole thing was sapping my creative energies faster than you could say 'dry spell' (to the point I got, maybe three and a half chapters done),** **I decided to say 'fuck it' and make a comeback**

 **So, I'm going to try my hand at this again.**

 **I'll try and get back to the old schedule... this Chapter's more of a precursor of things to come. After this one I may not jump on the horse right away, I'll be trying to build up the ol' buffer. I would also like to ask you to bear with me, as this is likely to be full of grammatical errors, spelling mistakes etc. as I get back on the ball.**

 **But yeah, I'm an idiot who doesn't know what he wants... and the recent realization that 'I have 300 people patiently waiting for new chapters. I** **am doing them a** _ **massive**_ **disservice.' Chafed a lot**

 **Also, I want to announce that I want to do Omakes. Subjects like "Cobalts adventures as Oobleck apprentice" (Insert Indiana Jones reference) and "Cobalt's previous dates with Velvet" haven't even been mentioned, and I meant to put them in, but there was always something more important, or I wanted to move the story forward... I might take submissions (no promises) if someone can do a bang-up job of providing something along those lines.**

 **Anywho, enough yammering, you want to see a chapter, I want to give you one.**

 **Edit: Holy fuckshit you guys: over 485 followers, 1,200-odd viewers... I'm honoured... speechless even... I might need to sit down for a bit.**

* * *

"What the- What are you still doing here?"

"You've got a very nice place with an absolutely stunning view, what's not to love?" Inari replied

"Don't you have-"

"The Kitsune can come and go to find me as they please, and they're the ones taking prayers" Inari interrupted

I opened my mouth and closed it several times as I search in vain for a counter-argument

"I know I'm going to have a brilliant argument not thirty minutes from now... but I suppose you can stick around... other than Ray, this place does get pretty lonely."

"It's an entire Floating City, with a population of five beings" Inari pointed out

"The VIP lounge was supposed to help mitigate that." I said

"It doesn't help does it?"

"Not much..."

"I'm not allowed to 'interfere' in the everyday goings on... but the Kitsune aren't gods. They can help... for a price" Inari said

I perked up, intrigued

"I understand you've been repurposing that Familiar spell that produced Darling Lisica into one that can manifest a solid body for a lost soul or spirit"

"Well... yeah. That's exactly it." I said

"But you need more resources." Inari continued "The spell is raw, untested"

"I've been studying... but I want to iron the kinks out before I use it on anyone." I replied "But, y'know, you're omniscient, you know that already"

"Here's a little incentive for you: Perfect the spell, and when you do, The Kitsune will owe you a debt if you were to use such a spell to manifest them with corporeal forms."

"...which would lower the power requirements to continue to interact with this realm without possessing someone... Get me the soul of a small animal and you have a de-" I said as Inari produced a small, glowing crystal

"This is that spirit magic I've read about isn't it?" I asked, taking the crystal from her hands, touching it with my aura briefly.

The creature within was scared, frightened... but amazingly whole.

"It would be. Fluffy died of natural causes."

"Technically this might count as animal cruelty if I fuck it up. I am scratch-building an entire body from nothing... and I've seen the numbers, I _know_ for a fact that I can only dream of mana scores that high... even if I invest in haemomancy to add my HP to the spell, I'd still fall short"

"Unfortunately I can only point you in the right direction... and since you're a bit dense, here's the short version: You remember your lesson in Feng Shui?"

"That's all about Dragon- or Ley-Lines and that... veins of mana coursing through the earth, fast travel for those that know how and a hefty boost to my magic- All of Remnant would help me fuel the spell... if I find where the lines meet, I could do it." I said, mind working at a lightning pace

Inari nodded "You know what to do."

I was already halfway out the door

Inari merely chuckled to herself and poured herself another glass of the delectable wine he'd bought. It wasn't the Sake she was used to... but those wolves knew what they were doing.

* * *

"He got back" Lisica said, handing me a collection of small mechanical bits centred around a long pipe I knew to be a rifled gun barrel... I quickly grabbed a few tools and a calculator, quickly putting together that it was a heavy rifle calibre, not as big as Crescent Rose's, but I might be able to snipe if I could handle the recoil.

That's not saying much, as Crescent Rose was just insane from start to finish, but it was still a rund with some 'heft' to it.

I quickly got to putting the thing together.

"Awesome... I'm glad to know that when the time comes, he'll be ready"

"You know I'm more than ready" said a voice at the door

"If I weren't already busy with this, I would hug you."

* * *

"Cobalt!" Ruby shouted, waving

"Oh, Hey Ruby, how're you doing?" I said as I approached

"I'm fine... I was wondering about you, y'know, after what happened?" Ruby said, quieter this time

"I've... dealt with it. Cooled off a bit... beating her face against every nearby flat surface helped a lot with easing the aggression." I said

"Whoa, whoa, whoa; hold the phone. Who did you beat up?" Yang asked

"Ruby and I stumbled across an unknown terrorist in the CCT last night, but that should be kept quiet... I got the upper hand on her after a brief stint playing dead... which wasn't hard to make convincing after I was shot in the throat with an arrow... I am, was, and will be fine. Not even a tickle... I... might've Kangaroo-kicked her out the windows up there, unfortunately"

"What?"

"Jump and kick them with both feet simultaneously... like a Kangaroo rearing up on its tail to do the same."

"What's a Kangaroo?"

"National animal of Australia. It's... Liz, can you help me out?" I asked

Lisica created a Kangaroo's likeness with an illusion that promptly reared back on its tail and delivered a two-footed claw slash.

"You let her get away?"Blake demanded, cutting off any more explaining

"I kicked her out a window... after being shot in the throat. It was in my best interest to end the conflict ASAP... besides, I've left a few presents for her next time."

Blake sighed in defeat

"It's not all bad... I've got a surprise I want to show you before you go on your mission"

"A surprise? What is it?" Ruby asked

"Now that would be telling, now wouldn't it? For now though, I've completed my new weapon, so I'm back in the Polearm business."

"Are you going to be choosing a mission?"

"I'm apprenticed to Oobleck... you might not have noticed since I'm so rarely here these days, and probably figured I was up at Outer Heaven, but Oobleck has seen fit to drag me with him on one or two small side quests... and I kinda have to follow him around if he sallies forth to meet the Grimm or the Unjust."

I was interrupted by Ozpin as he tapped on the microphone and gave an impromptu history lesson that was more useful to viewers of the show than the people listening to it in reality.

Because Ozpin had seen the show with me, he knew what was going to happen. He'd already made a special exception in Team RWBY's mission limitations, so that went smoother than normal, other than that, it went how I remembered it.

* * *

"So, Cobalt, what's this surprise you've got for us?" Ruby asked as I walked with them, stating that I wanted to see my friends off before heading out with Oobleck

"It's very nearly here" I said as we walked across the courtyard

"It better be soon, or we'll be gone already" Weiss remarked

"This isn't one of those not-surprises, where you tell us you've got a surprise when you don't, is it?" Yang asked

"My pranks aren't nearly so creative Yang, you should know that"

* * *

 **=Flashback=**

Cardin awoke to the sound of glass breaking, which had him already up and alert.

He got up and looked out to see that one of the small panes had been broken. Probably by a rock thrown by someone with a grudge. Plenty of those around for some reason.

It was the sudden hissing noise that got his attention, and drew his eyes to a cylindrical canister that was currently belching pale smoke.

Cardin shouted, which quickly roused the rest of his team to alertness , shortly before Cardins throat began to burn and his eyes stung bad enough that he could barely see well enough to make for the door

Within seconds, CRDL was down in medical getting their eyes flushed out with milk to help relieve the tear gas they'd all been exposed to.

The search turned up inconclusive, the grenade wasn't marked in any way, shape or form, professionally made, and there were far too many people with motive and opportunity to even begin to point a finger at a culprit.

* * *

"If I wanted to prank you, I'd put a spring-loaded mechanism filled with chalk powder or water soluble blue dye in your locker" I concluded "Targeted, directed, very little chance of backfire, and a quick clean-up after. I don't like collateral damage, and I don't see the point of physically hurting someone for a prank. I don't want to prank Yang and hit Ruby, and then Ruby gets hurt because that's decidedly less fun"

"Team CFVY is back" someone shouted, interrupting my train of thought

"weren't they supposed to be back weeks ago?" Ruby asked

"Yeah... but I knew they'd be fine" I said

"Insider Knowledge, Cobalt?" Yang asked

"Yep."

"Are you ever going to show us?" Weiss asked

"Nope."

"Why not?" Ruby asked

"Shit gets, forgive the pun, grimm in later seasons. I tell you that you don't die, you think you can't die and are reckless, you end up dying. I tell you that you die, but not where or when and you play it cautious, get gun-shy about engaging and let something slip through that kills someone else. I tell you when and where and you might think that you can't die until then, see clause one. The future is not set in stone and can be changed... Just trust me, if I say "don't do that", or "Do this", it's because I don't want any of you schmucks dying... and I plan to use future events as ammo for a PR stunt that should see both springing my trap and the plans for after run a lot smoother. Rest assured: I happen to quite like the lot of you, and that shipment of soulstones isn't in yet. Turns out the process of making one is tricky and secret and we're still in negotiations with the Angris Council for the recipe and user manual." I stated "So dying is, as always, off the table until further notice."

It was then that Velvet approached

"It's good to see you again Velv" I said, wrapping her up with a hug.

Velvet 'eeped' as I brougt her into my bear hug. The effect wasn't quite as severe as, minus the ears, Velvet was only 4 and a half inches shorter than my 5'11.5... still, it meant I could smell her shampoo with every breath.

"wait, how did Cobalt fit that speech into-" Blake asked

"Talking is a free action Blake." Lisica said, grinning like the cat who caught the canary.

"I know, but-"

"Gamer. That's how." she summarised

"Didja miss me?" I asked Velvet

"Of course you big lug... aren't you going to ask why I'm late?"

"Nope. You watched the show, you know I know that 'there were so... many'." I replied

"oh." Velvet replied

"Wait, she got to watch the show?" Yang protested

"Her role isn't so pivotal, she's my girlfriend, and I'd taken a shot of something so powerful that the bar record for the dosage is about... seven seconds of consciousness, two hours of black out, followed by a night performing drunken escapades... set by myself" I said "so, yeah."

I checked my watch "Christ on a bike! We're gonna be late!"

There was a brief panic attack before we all made a mad dash for the air pad.

* * *

The sound of mad cackling filled the air as I enjoyed RWBY's faces as they realized exactly who the fully-fledged hunter they were supposed to be working with was.

I calmed down eventually, took one look at their faces, and nearly fell over laughing again. It was one thing to see it in the show, it was another thing entirely to watch their jaws hit the floor in person.

And I lived for the Schadenfreude.

"Guys, it's not so bad, we just have to go save the world with professor Oob- okay, yeah, that sounds even worse when you say it out loud" Ruby said

"You're saving the world without us? No fair!" Nora declared

"Don't worry Nora, when the time is right, butts shall be kicked liberally in good measure" I said "Besides, RWBY stumbled across the evil plot, they've got dibs on the first round of breaking things."

"awww" Nora said

"Ren really wanted to visit this one town" Jaune said "what are you guys up to?"

"Me? I'm shadowing Doctor Oobleck as per my apprenticeship... and the good Doctor is taking RWBY with us on a good ol fashioned witchhu- er, I mean Search and Destroy out in the South East."

"Good luck with that" Sun said as he walked up

"so, what're you guys up to?"

"We're junior detectives, we've chosen to shadow a crime specialist and we've got totally awesome badges to prove it." Neptune boasted

"Well, you sound like you'll be having a lot of fun. I'll mostly get clean-up duty and maybe get to play with some toys I've got packed" I said

"Packed? Unless that coat's bigger on the inside-" Neptune foolishly began, and stopped when I produced a 6lb artillery canon... Ironically, from under my coat. The look on Neptune's face when I produced a freaking canon on demand was beyond priceless.

"Funny you should mention that... Doctor?"

"Yes, I'm afraid those bags won't be necessary, girls, seeing as you've opted to shadow a Huntsman on what is now essentially a reconnaissance mission. I can assure you, we will not be establishing a single base of operations. Rather, we will be traversing several miles of hazardous wasteland and making camp in any defendable locations we may stumble upon. Cobalt, under my guidance, has already packed all of our essentials, and I myself have plotted our air course and readied the airship"

I switched into Military mode to start barking the orders "Alright, so you heard the man. Make ready for immediate departure; The Good Doctor is even more anal about schedules and timekeeping than I am... and I've been down to the minute since I bought myself a watch."

There was a collective gulp from RWBY.

"I have pre-prepared for each of you a 'Handy Haversack' filled with your personal essential supplies. Inside you will find a full survival kit, toiletries, weapon maintenance kits, spare clothes and a weeks worth of food and water, and extra ammo. This premium edition bag of holding is larger on the inside than it is on the outside, and will always weigh a fixed amount, no matter how much or how little is in the bag. Do note that there is an upper limit to both the size and weight of an object you can place in this bag, and that it costs two thousand gold coins to purchase, in addition to roughly two thousand Lien of gear inside, not counting what I have stocked from my own armouries in Outer Heaven. Suffice to say, do not lose or damage this bag, as if you are separated from the group for whatever reason, it will be your lifeline... also note that if the bag is pierced, it can tear open and everything inside is lost forever. On the flip side; In addition to connecting to a small extradimensional 'pocket' the bag is also enchanted to always have the item you search for on the top of the pile. Inside the bag is a list of everything inside the bag on the bottom of the pile. before I let you board, I want you to produce this list from the bag. I would recommend you read and familiarise yourself with its contents as we travel to the mission LZ."

I quickly handed out the leather hip-bags to team RWBY.

"Don't you need one?" Blake asked

"I have my inventory, which is like your haversack, but without the size or weight limits. Lisica gets the same, Raven's already got hers and is actually from the place these things are made... she picked it up like breathing... not that it's hard or anything." I explained "...and JNPR, if you want, I have one each for you as well."

"Such an expensive gift" Pyrrha noted

"Well, it's supposed to be used out on missions and stuff, and I thought a packed lunch just wouldn't cut it, y'know?" I joked

We all shared a laugh

"Though seriously, I've got a crapton of scratch just on-hand. The Haversack is nothing... besides, the MRE's taste horrible for all their nutritional value, which kinda makes up for it." I said

"why-"

"They didn't exactly have chocolate pudding MREs... well, they did, but the number of poison resistance alerts kinda scared me off them. It's just a side-effect of making sure the food never goes bad."

"oh"

"aaanywho, We should probably get going. Oobleck's instructed me to tell you to leave your bags here...

Oobleck chose that moment to complain that we were five minutes late already, so I headed into the Bullhead.


	40. This is what the 'train'-ed for

**Holy shit you guys. Mere hours after I post and already I've got reviews out the wahzoo and using my email becomes somewhat harder as I've got to regularly check in to wade through all the notes and read. Thanks you guys.**

 **Another thing to note, I guess: I had BUTTLOADS of stuff planned out for the Breach and the Invasion, down to a 'master game plan'… there are three major events left in Canon, and those three events have taken a big portion of the planning as the big setpieces, and a lot of this has been setup for those big prizes.**

 **...and I stopped just short of 'the good part'.**

 **I shall now proceed to stomp on the sharp end of a rusty nail, and -assuming the tetanus doesn't get me- finish writing the fic.**

* * *

"I guess I never thought of you as a fighter" Yang said

"I admit, I fancy myself as more of an intellectual, but as a Hunter I can assure you, I've been in my fair share of tussles before"

Ruby tilted her head in confusion "Like the mushroom?"

"those are Truffles" Blake corrected

"Like the sprout?"

"Those are Brussels" Yang corrected

"Besides, given my expertise in the field of history, as well as my dabbling's in archaeological surveys, our dear headmaster saw fit to assign me to this particular... assignment" Oobleck continued

"What does history have to do with this?" Weiss asked

"What a preposterous question, you silly girl! Why, history is the very backbone of our society! And the liver!... and probably the kidneys if I were to wager"

"And that means..."

"The Southeast quadrant's got plenty of landscape: wild forests, deep caves, all that jazz... and it's also home to a rather historic site and one of the Kingdom's greatest failures-" I said

"Mountain Glenn." Ruby finished for me

"Precisely" Oobleck and I said in tandem

Oobleck and I shared a glance

"Either way, thanks to the little tip-off Blake gathered and Ruby conveyed, thank you for all that, we figured it'd be the most likely place to contain a hideout... and, after some logistics and *ahem* shared foreknowledge, We have deduced a likely location. We believe that the most likely place this bunch is holed up in is in the old Subway system the former residents used to get to work before Vale sealed the tunnels off after a large number of subterranean Grimm were released into the Metro. This mission is still Search and Destroy, but I've pulled together some resources and we know where the bad guys are now."

"So why haven't we already struck?" Blake asked

"Because _this_ is the first strike we could muster... like, do you have any idea how hard it is to get schematics, floor plans and blueprints from that far back? They ran me through due process at the speed of bureaucracy and then we had to formulate the plans, make predictions about the sort of resistance we'd see and then modify those plans to cut a path of least resistance to the heart of the matter. Welcome to the tip of the spear."

"Pilot guy says we're there" Ravaora said

"Thanks... right, get ready for a hot landing." I said grabbing the handle on the door

I looked into the cockpit, took a breath to steel myself, yanked the door open and dropped into the open air. Once I was falling I quickly went over the checklist, identifying enemies and mentally marking their locations for when I could do something about it.

As there weren't any enemies to worry about I used my flip-belt to slow my fall and met the ground with a feather's grace, as did Lisica who had taken the door opposite mine on the bullhead.

We quickly scanned the perimeter, ready for action until the bullhead got close enough and Oobleck and RWBY could disembark.

"Ladies! You still may be students, but as of this moment, your first mission as Huntresses has begun! From this point forward, you need to do exactly as I say! Do you understand?" Oobleck said, before noticing Ruby still had her bag "Ruby! I thought you were told to leave all of your bags back at school."

"Actually I omitted that bit" I said

"Why, pray tell would that be?" Oobleck asked

Lisica approached Ruby's bag and lifted the flap, whereupon she got a faceful of... not hostile, but definitely unfriendly dog.

I blinked at this display, and it seemed Ruby and Yang were confused as well... then it occurred to me and I immediately slapped my forehead

"I completely forgot: Dogs can sniff out Kitsune and they tend to not like them." I said "I keep forgetting Liz isn't as human as she looks most of the time."

Lisica reverted to fox form and Zwei seemed to calm down somewhat.

"It's just Cobalt's magic fox, Zwei" Ruby said

Zwei sniffed at Lisica for a bit before giving a happy bark and running off to smell me and Ravaora

"Is that... a Dog?" Ravaora asked, to which Zwei barked at her for

"Yeah! his name is Zwei and our Dad sent him to us to look after" Ruby replied

"is it a pup, or-" Ravaora asked

"Corgis are supposed to be small with short feet... they're not meant to go hunting and stuff, more look cute and be great dogs if you have small kids...normally; Zwei... isn't normal, and I don't know what the Rose-Xiao Longs did, but he's clearly smarter and tougher than most dogs... probably awakened his aura or something" I explained quickly "Zwei's good as a hunter's dog"

Lisica tentatively shapeshifted back to human, and Zwei watched with interest, and merely cocked his head... probably curious

I crouched down to pet Zwei "Hey little buddy. I'm Cobalt, nice to meet you at long last. I do weird stuff to get awesome results and try to help Ruby and her team out of sticky messes." I said by way of introduction "You're clever, working out Lisica's little disguise but understanding the trick. She's with me, you don't have to worry about her."

Zwei just barked, and I just smiled

"Ah, well then Cobalt... do try to keep me informed of these developments." Oobleck said

"I'll try to remember that in future" I said

"So, what are your orders, prof- I mean Doctor?" Blake asked Oobleck

"Cobalt has identified an entrance for us ahead of time, however we still have a ways to go, and we suspect the Grimm won't make this easy for- Grimm"

"Uh, what?" Ruby asked

"Beowolf, ten o'clock." I explained "Pack right behind it if the show holds up and what Gamer's telling me is no lie."

"Right, well, RWBY... Show me what you can do" Oobleck said

"Why us?" Weiss asked

"They offer me no challenge, next to no experience and there's only so many times you can slap them with the soggy end of their own arm before it just gets dull." I explained "Liz is the same, Ravaora... well, Raven, feel free to lend your spellfire in aid of team RWBY."

Ravaora rolled her eyes and stretched out "I could use the target practice I suppose"

"Zwei cover your ears" Ruby said as RWBY got ready to lay down the hurt

Zwei did so, curling up into a ball as team RWBY proceeded to crush the Grimm.

* * *

"Tell me, Cobalt, why do you fight?" Oobleck asked

"Well... there's a few reasons, really. Gamer, for one: If I'm not fighting and winning I stagnate, and being a hunter gives me the most opportunities to do that... and then there's the foreknowledge: knowing that shit's going to hit the fan, and hard, means I've got to do something... RWBY know this, which is why they've started meddling... lastly, those guys are my friends, and... well, I told Ruby this, but friends; good, real, solid friends; are, to me, a treasure beyond value. There are few things I'm willing to die for, but forging a better tomorrow, even if just for them, seems like a worthy goal."

"...and Lisica? How does she feel about all this?" Oobleck asked

"I- that's... I mean, she's always been happy to go along with my shenanigans, but it's all she's known since the moment she first cracked her eyes open... I mean, she's gotten my memories as well, and we're constantly sharing thoughts and emotion to help her get a handle on things, but I'm...not an ideal role model. You've given us a lot to think about... the short answer is that she's going to throw her lot in with me no matter what anyways, but the whys, the how's... that's a lot of questions that'll cost us sleep."

"As it should"

* * *

"So, who wants to take watch?" Oobleck asked

"Me and Liz don't need-need sleep unless we want bonus XP. We'll take watch" I replied

Lisica looked up from her book before producing a small night-vision scope so she could spot for me.

"We'll be hitting up the Fang Hideout early tomorrow, so get your rest"

* * *

The first thing the White Fang knew about the attack was several metal cylinders rolling down the stairs into the subway.

The cylinders began belching white smoke that stung their eyes and burned their throats. It was a struggle to breathe, let alone see or respond to the attack as two masked figures wearing strange and ugly gas masks stepped through the smoke.

One by one each was knocked out... though none too gently.

Soon Cobalt and team RWBY were making swift progress through the facility, breezing past Fortifications, machinegun nests and more with relative ease and the speed and force of the spetsnaz.

These guys were under-prepared... though who in their right mind expects hunters to use tactical gear like flashbangs or tear gas?

"An unorthodox approach Cobalt."

"On the contrary, Doctor. This is bog-standard to make sure that people without aura don't get shredded by walking around a corner that's being watched by an enemy with a machinegun... it's tactical, reserved. Leave the flashy theatrics for enemy hunters; the power attacks and magic are wasted on the small-fry." I said

"Indeed. We save our energy for the times when we need it" Oobleck noted

"My thoughts exactly... and even then, that experiment with the chilli-sauce and the watergun from my fight with Cardin proved that aura couldn't block everything... we'd suffocate otherwise." I said

"Though Aura would dilute the effects by a large degree, this gas would allow one to gain the upper hand." Oobleck noted

"Precisely my line of thinking." I said

Roman didn't need much motivation to get moving. Concerned with self-preservation as he was, he could see the reckoning headed his way, and wasn't about to stick around for it.

Just as Keikaku... that means plan.

Team RWBY quickly boarded the train behind him, with Ravaora surprising the lot of us with a new spell: Misty Step, which worked similar to Flash... or Blink, as it's more properly known.

Thankfully, I was able to change that name, talking about 'flash' quickly got awkward.

We quickly moved up the train, blasting any White Fang that got in our way as the train cars started detaching and detonating, eventually reaching a point where we were forced to enter the train... and walked right into Neo.

"She's Mine" Yang said

"Actually, no. She's mine." I corrected

"I still owe her for-"

"You don't owe her shit about dick." I retorted "teleportation, illusions and I've seen her slip around you like she wasn't so much out of your league as you were playing an entirely different game in another country. Don't pick this fight. It's only going to end in tears" I said

Yang looked conflicted

"Let the spellcasting speedster with a teleport spell to keep up with hers pick this fight, instead" I said "help Weiss."

Yang begrudgingly stood down and followed her teammates towards the front of the train

 _'So what was all that about?'_ Neo asked

"I saw you get _this_ close to killing her. Not gonna let that happen" I explained, holding my fingers roughly a centimetre apart for her to see.

 _'Are you actually precognizant?'_ Neo asked 'S _erious question, you've been giving Cinder and co. A lot of restless nights. I hear she's been sleeping with a small knife under her pillow now'_

"Nope." I said, popping the 'p', and quietly chuckling to myself about having cost Cinder peace of mind.

 _'Then how?'_ Neo asked

"Would you believe me if I said that I was from another world?" I asked

 _'I don't see how that-'_ Neo began

"Watch this" I said, handing her a 'disposable' scroll.

* * *

 _"I will survive" *Nom*_

Neo's eyebrows shot up

"Eeyup: shit goes pear shaped for everyone, no one is happy and there is no happy ending... I'm not so much a Hunter, or a Gamer, as the self-proclaimed architect of happy endings." I said

 _'Why show me this?'_ Neo asked

"Not-Roman said it best: You're not in this not for the money or some ideal, just to survive a little longer than Joe Schmoe." I said

 _'No; survive, period.'_

"Let's run a little hypothetical: The Grimm have destroyed the Kingdoms, humanity's great bastions of hope and safety... where to from there? Cleaning up the survivors and plunging the world into darkness. I don't know if Cinder's brainwashed, after power at any price, or a cultist, but her plans would see not only people like myself dead, but you and even her... Cinder's a lunatic who's made a faustian deal that has not only damned her and will kill her, but will see every other living being on Remnant dead."

 _'Obviously... but what do you want me to do?'_ Neo asked

"Betray her... Keep the scroll and convince Roman to come with you if you can, the scroll's disposable and it's got everything... there's a message in the notepad app detailing a rendezvous that should be private enough for us to conduct a meeting. We can negotiate the exact terms of our agreement from there... mostly I'll need simple shit: a wiretap, the odd photo, maybe a button-camera if we're feeling bold... in exchange I can offer sanctuary and amnesty... though that one might be a bit 'see to believe'."

Neo quickly checked through the scroll

 _'So, where to from here?'_ She asked

"We have some options: For one: we ignore the deal and fight, it's a big mess and this train ride ends before either of us are dead. Two: We each go on our merry way and pretend we never saw each other, mentioning a brief stalemate before one of us disappears thanks to blink if anyone asks... three, we could have a small not-serious sparring match, best two of three touches wins... keep in mind the train will crash soon, and I'd rather get somewhere safe-ish before that happens."

Neo smiled ' _In that case_ _I'll pick door number two.'_ She said as she teleported away

I let out a sigh of relief and said "Thank Go- Thank the gods". I had to keep my new polytheistic outlook in mind.

I turned to leave only to nearly jump out of my skin as I found Neo standing right behind me

She only smile, grabbed the front of my collar, planted a kiss firmly on my lips and then actually teleported away

I sputtered and pawed at my lips in a mixture of shock, surprise and mild disgust.

"Goddamnit!" I shouted at thin air

* * *

I climbed on top of the train can and saw that the tunnel was ending soon. I was still several cars back, and saw I wasn't going to make it to that ice-shield Weiss was going to throw up. In a desperate bid to escape, I took a leaf out of Ruby's book and grabbed Astartes, pointed the shooty end behind me, jumped and fired whilst I was in mid-air.

Even with recoil-boosting and I running at top speed, it was painfully obvious I wasn't going to make it.

It was in the last second that Lisica teleported so that she was safe with Ravaora and RWBY. The train hit the barrier and I smacked into the back of Weiss's crumbling ice-shield mid-facepalm.

The last thing I heard was a deafening 'Crunch!' As blackness engulfed me.

* * *

 **This chapter's not my finest work, I'll admit, but it's something...**


	41. The Breach pt1

Lisica didn't take long to pick herself up off the concrete of the plaza as soon as the stun wore off.

The reason: Alarm sirens were blaring like there was no tomorrow. Something had forced GfG into red alert... and it didn't take long to figure out what: Cobalt _was_ making a lot of noise.

The worrying thing was that his movements seemed uncoordinated and he was stumbling about like he was drunk... The Alarming thing was the gigantic black-and-white chainsaw with red eyes studded along the sides growing out of his left arm that didn't so much as tear through the grimm Cobalt swung it at, as begin to suck them up they were made of putty the second Cobalt touched them with the teeth.

The chainsaw was biomechanical in appearance, appearing to have grown out of Cobalts arm whilst she'd been unconscious

Add in that he was seemingly veering between Fight for your life mode and being resuscitated in some kind of never-ending cycle perpetuated by lifedrain and Lisica had to do something... something had possessed Cobalt, and it was not a benevolent or benign form of control.

So she shot at the chainsaw with Militarum

The explosive bolt rounds seemed the faze it, but the damage sealed right up again after. Cobalt turned to face her and swung the two-handed chainsword at her.

Lisica redirected the attack and retaliated with Militarum, but found her claws had the same effect: not a whole lot after the regeneration factor kicked in, the HF claws doing little more than scratching the grotesque sword.

This was going to be a crapshoot of a fight.

Lisica needed something quicker and more precise than 'overwhelm its regeneration ability', as most of her repertoire that could do that would also kill Cobalt.

Ducking, dodging and redirecting the chainsaw, Lisica moved about until a lucky blow tore Cobalt's sleeve off.

The arm was grotesque, and as she looked, the skin split and an angry red eye tore open on his arm to glare at her. There was no question about it: The arm was a total loss... and given how it was currently bending so it could gut her, it was broken in too many places to ever fix properly.

She was going to have to amputate and pray the corruption hadn't spread... though if Cobalt's arm had mutated like that, her hopes weren't high.

It occurred to her that it was well documented what happened to a Mage after a familiar dies... but she didn't know what happened to the familiar if the mage died.

Cobalt backed off and the sword solidified into a large, single-edged sword with a slight curve to it. Like a scimitar, if a scimitar was blown up to the size of a zweihander.

"You're going to have to do better than that if you want to scare me." Lisica taunted "Cobalt's ruined us both with everything from Dark Souls to Resident Evil to Alien. What're you, some 5/10 B-movie mutant?"

The sword narrowed its dozen or so eyes before lashing out at Lisica, intent on rending her in twain.

Lisica performed a handspring off the flat of the blade and flung a knife she'd laced with a tranquiliser at Cobalt.

Cobalt stumbled more than usual as the knife stuck in his left shoulder and the tranquiliser immediately set to work numbing him.

Lisica discarded Militarum and drew Seigi, the sword gifted to her by Inari, and met the creature in battle.

The sword exchanged a few blows with her, Seigi proving to be as durable as one would expect of a divine relic, and not shattering the minute the sword nearly thirty times its weight slammed into it, for which Lisica was thankful. Katanas weren't renowned for their great durability.

The thing about all that weight, was that the sword was slowing itself down... and against a speedster, that was a stupid idea. It didn't take long for a sideways swing to be parried above Lisica's head and the moment was seized upon.

Seigi tasted its first blood in Lisica's hands, hewing Cobalt's arm off in one fell swoop.

Oddly enough the wound didn't squirt blood at first, instead it ejected slugs of black goop for the first few heartbeats, before the blood came in thick and red.

Lisica was quick to Rush to Cobalt's aid, Lay on Hands sealing the gaping wound and Lisica quickly wrapped the stump in bandages... to her dismay, Cobalt had centimetres left of his old arm.

"Cobalt?!"

Lisica turned to see Ruby... and Cobalt, standing, whole, with both arms... and a grotesquely bulging back

What even was this thing?

The creature's back split open after several seconds of struggling and answered her question as out came a titanic, snake-like head that looked as though it were made of tar or other thick black goo, in addition to two hands formed of three triple-jointed, clawed fingers and a clawed thumb.

It resembled a Sin of Man from Dark Souls 3. Though mercifully rare, they were annoyingly hard-hitting enemies that posed as weaker enemies until the player approached.

And Cobalt was playing host to one up until now... which was odd, as he'd never been anywhere near the Deep or the Abyss... not even close.

A cough reminded Lisica of Cobalt's precarious status and she realized she needed to save him and quickly... but there was still the SoM. Thinking quickly, Lisica flung two small fireballs at the manifestation of bad-shit, which lit up the tar-monster like a mixtape, heaved Cobalt over her shoulder and ran towards one of the nearby shops, which just so happened to be a Bar that was being threatened by a Beowolf.

The Beowolf didn't stay threatening for long as a pair of high-explosive shotgun slugs detonated inside its skull.

Lisica roughly shoved a number of drinks to the side and dumped Cobalt roughly onto the table before beginning hands-only CPR, pumping his chest to the beat of 'Staying Alive'… The so-called 'Kiss of Life' was of questionable effectiveness and a great vector for transmitting diseases, particularly STD's... so it was advised against in the courses Cobalt had taken on the subject.

Lisica breathed a sigh of relief when Cobalt finally woke up with several health points... of course, Cobalt's day immediately went from bad to worse when he realised his left arm was missing when he reached for a health potion.

It tore at Lisica's heart to see the realisation dawn on Cobalt. It hurt more that she was needed to defeat the mess left in her absence and couldn't comfort him.

After all, the despair was leaking across their bond, and only intensifying as Cobalt became more cognizant of what that meant in terms of things he could and couldn't do. It was hard to not want to at least comfort him.

Of course, Lisica also knew he'd be determined to not end out like Yang; especially if someone pointed it out to him: he'd take it like a slap to face... and he was a mad scientist through-and-through, with an equivalent to a masters-degree in advanced robotics, medical science and electrical engineering, not to mention magical knowledge pertaining to the soul, in addition to 100 intelligence; which was twice the scores of certified geniuses. Creating a custom prosthetic wasn't going to be much of an issue... the issue was when they'd stop.

Lisica felt a grin spread across her face at the thought of Cobalt working like that. He'd relish the challenge.

* * *

RWBY was at a stalemate. The plaza was essentially a three-way free-for-all between Team RWBY, the Grimm and the creature that looked like a Grimm, but wasn't.

Right now both RWBY and the not-grimm were killing Grimm, team RWBY doing what they did best, Ravaora firing off periodic eldritch blasts, in addition to experimenting with some of her other spells, and Oobleck and Zwei had reappeared with a Paladin mech and were proceeding to clean house.

Lisica knew that she had to stop the SoM, and quickly lit it up with a small hailstorm of kitsunebi, her tails fanning out and firing one after the other like the magical equivalent of a Gatling Gun. The firebolts weren't particularly accurate, but they were numerous enough that the tar-monster was forced to turn and face her.

As the nickname suggests, the creature was very flammable, and consequently wasn't fond of fire.

Lisica stopped when she was forced to duck out the way of a two-handed fist-smash, before resuming fire as soon as her momentum had carried her skating outside its reach.

"Deal with the grimm, I've got this one pinned and I know its weak spot." Lisica shouted

"Be careful" Ruby shouted back

"Careful's my middle na-" Lisica said before getting slammed by a giant backhand, which sent Lisica hurtling through the air and into a storefront, rendering her unconscious

"Lisica!" Ruby shouted

The Sin of Man hissed after the kitsune until a bolt of lightning streaked through the air.

"I don't know why I'm saving her ass, but I am." Ravaora said "Over here you giant asshat"

The snake helpfully obliged her, and, oddly Ravaora didn't move, not even when it reared back to attack her

" _Hellish Rebu_ k _e_ "

Ravaora still got smacked, but the creature once again writhed with pain as its body lit up like a candle.

RWBY would've lined up next, but were forced to back off as an Ursa Major attempted to attack the Tar Monster, only to be absorbed into the beast which grew larger still.

All hope seemed lost. The Tar Monster that Cobalt had spawned was too much.

Then a loud hollering sounded across the horizon, followed by a conspicuous white-and-pink streak hammering the tar-beasts head into the pavement with a resounding "Nora Smash!"

"Nora?" Ruby asked

"Everyone okay?" Jaune asked

"We're fine, but Cobalt and his team are all hurt, especially Cobalt" Ruby replied

"What is this thing?!" Pyrrha shouted as the rest of team JNPR duelled with it

"what she said" Jaune added

"I don't know, but whatever it is was inside Cobalt" Yang replied, punctuating her sentence by blasting a Beowolf with Ember Celica.

"what?" Jaune asked

"you heard me" Yang said

Jaune stared at the rampaging beast tearing up the plaza... He had no clue what this indicated, but he could bet his bottom dollar that it wasn't anything good.

Cobalt would have to do a lot of explaining after this, if there was an after to look forward to.

* * *

"Sir?"

Ironwood took one good, hard look at the scroll image, then proceeded to promptly choke on his coffee

"What the fuck?!"

* * *

"What is that thing, Coco?" Velvet asked

"Doesn't look like anything I've ever seen." Coco replied "doesn't mean we can't kill it"

"Actually" Fox said, pointing

Below, Pyrrha-freaking-Nikos had cleaved one of its arms off, before it simply reached out to a nearby beowolf and absorbed it, regrowing it's arm as it did so

CFVY was speechless.

"we've gotta hel-" Velvet started, but was interrupted, like everyone else, by a loud whistle, followed by a deafening boom

All eyes were drawn to the source, to reveal Cobalt, still missing his left arm, holding a canon under his arm and leaning against a doorway.

"You thought I was out for the count? Or that I'd miss this fight? Not on your life: this is what I live for" Cobalt said as he dropped the canon and drew the New-and-Improved Astartes

Velvets eyes drew wide as she noticed his injury "Cobalt?!"

* * *

 _ **This chapter was dragging on, and was nearly 4K words... unfortunately, my deadline's almost here, and the other 2K still needs a little work done... and I'm looking at a new job now, so my spare time's about to disappear.**_

 _ **Brace yourself, I might miss a few updates now that I have to work to earn my keep.**_

 _ **C'est la Vie.**_

 _ **I'm still going to try and stay on top of my schedule though.**_

 _ **Okay, so a reviewer asked why didn't Cobalt stop the breach Incident, since dozens of people got hurt. I answered already, but I figured the rest of you might wanna know:**_

 _ **1: Recruiting Neo. The next time she shows up is in disguise for the Vytal Festival... This is basically the last time Cobalt can be guaranteed to see Neo**_

 _ **2: I had planned for ages and ages and ages to resolve the inner darkness subplot here... as you just saw... and possibly put a fourth man on Cobalt's team so he can compete.**_

 _ **3:**_ ***Reason removed due to spoilers: Unnecessarily revealing Cobalt's plan***

 _ **4: Cobalt's an idiot and a bit crazy, and never thought of that.**_


	42. The Breach pt2

"Cobalt?!" Velvet shouted as I drew Astartes

"Hey honeybuns, Don't mind me, just ahd a slight... hiccup, in the plan"

"A what?"

"Minor case of dismemberment and cosmic horror. I've still got one good arm and enough bullshit to mop up this incident."

Velvet paled

"Three of the best swordsmen I know were famous for fighting with only one arm" I said, dropping into my ready pose "and I'm a damn good fighter"

As if by some portent, I watched as the Sin of Man didn't reform its head, merely reshaped the rubble, shifting into a _much_ more ominous form

The overall effect was like it had used a Gorilla as a base template, blown it up to the size of a semi-truck, replaced the head with deer-antlers, added a tail, and replaced one of the arms with a writhing mass of long tendrils a dozen feet long that would likely stretch out to much further, attached to a giant-sized hand with a gaping pebble-toothed maw in the palm

I stared at it, shocked, afraid even... and then the creature opened dozens of red eyes, spead across the horns

 _ **That which lies within all hearts;**_ _ **Manus (Shadow)**_  
 _ **level 92**_

That was a nice touch, I have to admit.

"Mention Berserk and Artorias, get Manus... I'm honoured and annoyed. What's next, actual Hexxing?"

As if to answer my question, the creature produced an Axe from inside its chest, which burned like it was alight with black fire... which it then shot at me.

I lunged around the attack and towards the monster, skipping across pavement and rubble like a stone across water, and attacked with Astarte's folded head, using the rifle to propel the blunt rear of the blade into Manus' stomach like a sledgehammer or battle axe.

The monster ate the attack and was sent flying back, taking half my weapon with it

I stared in mute shock, until I saw an Ursa and a pack of Beowolves slip past RWBY and attack Manus, which confused me until Manus pummelled them into the pavement and absorbved their corpses.

I immediately saw Manus's health increase. The asshole had regeneration and a way to heal itself, had eaten my grimm-enhanced weapon and was now looking angrily in my direction

I skipped backwards as an axe and a hammerfist reduced my previous position into so much dust.

I needed something to hit it with, stat. None of my mundane weapons were going to work on something that could seal the wound like an amoeba without a weakness to target...

Okay, two things come to mind to beat a blob of darkness like this guy: Light or Faith.

...and I can probably combine the two with the Light of my Soul... Aura.

I noted I was still carrying the back end of Astartes... the end with the large magical focus in it.

Magic wouldn't be enough, I'd need something simpler, easier... A sword would be simple and- I'm missing my left arm... and- yeah, that could work... but the cost would be prohibitive and...

"Looks like I'm going to be pulling this cat out the bag a little earlier than expected." I said after dodging far enough to get a breather.

I hit the switch on Astartes that exposed the focusing crystal in the back of the weapon, opening the 'petals' of the flower, and hitting another that stacked them into a cruciform hilt.

I'd always wondered why that button was there... and now curiosity was bordering on concern.

I cast a 'tried and true' spell: Soul Greatsword, which did as the name suggested and created a sword that was more an extension of me than a physical thing, manifesting as an ethereal six-foot-long sword made of blue light and billowing smoke and held it there, where it started to consume alarming amounts of Mana to stay manifested

I then used a technique I'd been holding back: Mana Crystallization. The condensing of large amounts of mana into solid crystal.

The result was... not unlike the Moonlight Greatsword, except more blue.

I spent a lot of the remaining nine tenths of my mana forcing the edges to de-solidify, causing excess material to evaporate off and leave a nice, sharp cutting edge, followed by runes on the surface of the blade to reinforce and strengthen the blade into something useable.

I stuck the sword in the ground quaffed a mana potion, grabbed my new sword and dodged the next strike, followed by a spinning cut that left a deep gash on Manus' shoulder.

Manus writhed and bellowed, a gesture swiping me away, and costing me much of the MP I'd _just_ regained, and sending me flying.

We'd traded damage, and in this little deal I'd screwed him with his pants on.

The regeneration kicked in, but the wound didn't seal completely, and Manus' HP didn't regenerate past a certain point. Though the difference was small, I knew I had a way to hurt him... but so did Manus.

Now he was really gunning for me, and it took most of what I had to keep out of harms way. I attempted to steer him away from where CFVY, RWBY and JNPR were fighting alongside Atlesian mechs.

I threw my sword across the plaza and quaffed another potion as I ran after it, before flash-stepping and catching it waiting and catching Manus with a vicious upswing to what would normally be its face, if Manus had one, carving a large furrow into the ground as I did so, sending Manus into an impressive backflip... that unfortuantely left him landing on me

We both landed with all the grace and beauty of a brick performing a swan dive, and with about the same structural integrity.

One doesn't simply walk away from having a bus land on you.

Still, I pulled myself to my feet, quaffed potions until I looked in better shape, and grabbed my sword once again.

Manus did the same, and we each stared each other down until we were done licking our wounds.

Then, seeing as we were as good as we were gonna get, we charged again. Sword met Axe in a mighty clash and were repelled, only to meet again soon after, again and again, and then I got a hit in after parrying Manus's axe, again causing colossal damage that Manus quickly recovered from. Then we fought again, trading blows and occasionally damage.

Occasionally I'd perform some athletic stunt to get an advantage, or I'd get swiped across the plaza costing me more medicine, and with every attack I got in, Manus got smaller as biomass was burned away by my sword.

The issue was that as Manus got smaller, he got faster, and soon I found my hits becoming rarer and rarer as Manus soon became able to keep up with me... and then I accidentally left myself open for a backhand, but instead of a crushing hammerfist, I felt a tug at my waist.

I realized with horror that Manus had jacked my sword.

Manus -now the size of a sedan instead of a short bus- reabsorbed his axe and drew my sword, shrinking his form as he drew the action out until he was only slightly taller than I was, and resembled a man wearing black leather reinforced with bone and chunks of stone, wearing a skull mask and a feathered hood

The spitting image of a Darkwraith; A man tempted by his darker impulses and heavily corrupted by the abyss.

I felt fear as the powers of this new form came to mind: the Dark Hand, used to create a shield form air and, more commonly, to steal a person's soul and humanity... though fear made fast friends with amusement when I noted that his breathing sounded raspy and strained, like every bad Darth Vader impression.

The Creature plunged my sword into its chest, and returned with the classical Dark Sword. I immediately wrote the sword off as a loss.

Given all that, I didn't waste time on a one-liner, witty or no, and swung my sword overhead.

I must've caught him by surprise as the Darkwraith was immediately pancaked under my sword, only to be scraped off the gorund in an upswing that launched it across the plaza.

The Darkwraith picked itself up off the plaza as I charged in an attempt to finish it off quickly, only to throw up a hand and have red-tinted distorted air form a disk centered on its palm.

The softness of the shield let my sword sink in and get caught, before being wrenched aside and I felt the hand enter my chest with almost no resistance.

My eyes went wide as I became painfully aware of my core and the damaged majority of my soul that resided there. The touch was painful, that particular area of me sensitive as it wasn't used to be touching... not that it should've been in the first place.

The creature only breathed in my ear with that harsh, raspy hiss of it sucking air as I felt my MP and HP plummet, going to reinforce the being before me.

I felt a deathly chill creep into my limbs... Its hand was wrapped tight around my soul, and I couldn't move for fear of it coming loose.

"COBALT!"

I felt a bullet go whizzing past my ear as the Darkwraiths head exploded.

Ruby had seen my predicament and shot the monster leeching off my soul in the face.

Risky, yes, but it had saved my life.

I pulled a leg up and kicked the Darkwraith off me, and skipped back a few paces

I couldn't go out like that. I wouldn't go out like that. I still had a lot of people to save and my friends to protect, deaths to prevent and I wasn't going to die to some second-rate knock-off of a cosmic horror

I had to fight, but I had not mana, and very little health to do it with.

I pushed myself to stand up, pushed myself to make ready with my one arm, my greatsword now very heavy in my hands as I wasn't using Mana Muscles to buff my strength to 150, where I could fuck around with giant swords twice my weight like that.

I saw the Darkwraith reform its head and glare at me, with its gleaming, red eyes.

I pushed myself to make the first step, to rear my arm back and when I pushed to swing, I felt something else come loose. I felt a kind of impossible strength come loose with the attack, and when my sword ducked back into view in my swing, I saw it was glowing like a neon tube and wreathed in cobalt blue flames.

The Moonlight Greatsword cleaved straight through the Darkwraiths sword and continued into its sword arm, hacking it off.

I didn't stop there though, I steped forward and shoulder-rammed the abomination with my dead shoulder, the wound there hurting as I did so, before I swiped my sword in a colossal upswing, sending the Darkwraith skyward, along with my sword.

I leaped to the height of both and grabbed my sword before somersaulting and slamming the darkwraith with my sword, before letting gravity and momentum carry us both downwards into a pavement-cracking impact, followed by the power built in the sword explosively releasing in a giant fireball

 _ **You have pushed beyond the boundaries defined by your limits to find a glimpse of true strength, You have learned the Skill "Limit Break"**_

 _ **You've had enough and now, in your rage and desperation you have found a well of strength within yourself. Though potent, the Limit Break is both exhausting and requires one to take damage before they can utilise its awesome power. The Limit Break takes many forms and each is as unique as the last. This is your ultimate combo and finishing move.**_

I stood there, panting, not even bothering with the text window.

The creature stared at me for several long moments, broken, shattered... then with a hiss of escaping breath, collapsed into black goo and evaporated.

 _ **You have defeated your own shadow**_  
 _ **Rewards: 9200xp 16000 Lien**_

 _ **=Quest Comlete: The Breach=**_  
 _ **Congratulations**_  
 _ **Rewards: 500,000xp 1,000,000 lien +blueprint: Inhuman Chainsaw**_

Finally, I collapsed to my knees.

"about... about fucking time you fucking died." I said, too emotionally and physically drained to properly spit on the monster's grave.

I quickly found a pair of arms around my shoulders, and the tips of a pair of rabbits ears brushing the far side of my face. I winced as Velvet's hands brushed over the raw wound.

"Easy there... I'm... I'm a bit fragile right now..." I said

"sorry" Velvet said, pulling away

"No, No, come back... just my... my stump's still raw and you had your hands on it." I said

"oh" Velvet said, hugging me again with her hands lower this time. I hugged her back as best as I was able with one arm

We stayed like that for a long moment.

"What was that?" Yang asked as she approached

I let go of Velvet and she sat to the side

"I'm... not sure... this is a wild theory, but it took the form of beings I recognized who were corrupted by that darkness, and were more akin to mindless beasts seeking to kill those beings who still possessed a soul... and, according to the just-conscious Lisica, it came from inside me, or was possessing me... so it's either a super-bad grimm, or like those beings: a product of dark humanity- Jaune, do you remember how when I unlocked my aura it was black at first?"

"You mean...?" Jaune asked

"Exactly: this guy came from within... and here I was thinking I could avoid that whole 'Terrans have darkness in their soul' cliché... at least I was able to defeat it."

I collapsed again, this time with Velvet to catch me

I waited until the dizzyness and most of the exhaustion passed before I kissed Velvet back and pulled myself to support my own weight

"Now then... can someone give me a hand? I seem to have lost mine" I added with a grim smile

* * *

 **Whew, it's been a while since I've had to write up System text...**

 **I feel this could be much better and, in fact, I imagined something way more awesome... but Work at my new job has been sapping all of my energy or want-to-deal with anyone's bullshit... so I'm glad I've got this on time at all.**

 **Let's see... next stop after this is... huh, it's the Vytal Festival in Volume 3...**

 **Anywho, you're not reading this to hear me b*tch and whine about all my problems, are you? (seek mental help if you are)… so here's some pre-emptive answers and random thoughts to fill out some space:**

 **why destroy the nuAstartes? Because I developed a healthy love and respect for halberds over guandaos and glaives after realizing that Halberds are spears with deceptive axe-bits tacked on for extra attack options other than 'stab him'… the word polearm makes them sound like something distinct and different from a spear, when they're not. It pains me to introduce something only to so quickly take it away before we could see the true potential... though I hope the extra use developed in the process gives it a good send-off.**

 **Why break Raiden? Because I realized WAAAAY back I was being a 'Katana Kiddie', and I wanted to cut down on extra-heavy fat slicing weapons and replace it with a thinner, lighter design.**

 **Why hack off Cobalt's arm? Another decision made way back, once again... for slightly murkier reasons, but I can assure you they extended beyond 'Cobalt can weld a giant machinegun to his robo-arm'… though that's plenty reason to do it.**

 **I constantly worry that I'm giving you a rushed-feeling 'cliff-notes' version of these big events...**

 **Currently: If Cobalt were 'playing by the rules' and didn't have gamer helping him so much as it just quantifies the shit out of everything, his level 97 status would put him at a 3** **rd** **-year Beacon Level... graduates hit about 120-140 or so, depending on the individual and how their semblance stacks up in a fight, that said, Maiden!Cinder, Mercury, Emerald and Adam are coming soon... in addition to an attempt to raze Vale... and a Giant Grimm Dragon.**


	43. Round 1

In the days following the Breach, Cobalt disappeared, again.

Thankfully, this time, everyone knew where Cobalt might be... and there weren't many places in Outer Heaven that regularly produced familiar-sounding pained noises, so when Velvet heard Cobalt's voice coming from a medbay near the VIP lounge in Outer Heaven, she went to investigate.

The scene that greeted her wasn't very reassuring. Cobalt was sat on a large chair, the sort a dentist sat his patients on, except the dentist had been replaced with a large machine with many spindly tentacle-like limbs carrying dozens of apparatus moving across Cobalt's shoulder, Cobalt wincing and grunting with pain each time it shone a small laser-like light at Cobalt's arm-stump, leaving a silvery material behind

It didn't take long for Cobalt to notice that Velvet had arrived either

"Hey there. Fancy you should stop by, I was- argh!- just thinking of you" Cobalt said, trying to sound as if he were commenting on the weather, though it was plain to tell that he was struggling through the pain

Velvet gaped at Cobalt

"I know this may look- argh!... bad, really bad, to you... but if I take anaesthetics I'll fall asleep and ruin all this progress when my HP and MP shoot back to full and heal the wound over- fuck!... I need to stay awake and in pain for the transplant to take successfully" Cobalt told her

"What are you doing?" Velvet asked

"Getting a new arm... being stupid... trying to be all macho and tough it- owwwww~t" Cobalt said "Turns out that getting a hundred-million nerowelds to attach the architecture to power, direct and attach the arm hurts like being electrocuted and being set on fire at the same time... but I only realized exactly how much I used my left arm right now, and the... loss is just staggering"

"So what is that thing?" Velvet asked, gesturing at the collection of spindly arms and tentacles

"This is what we call an 'autodoc': a robot designed and programmed to diagnose, triage and perform surgery faster and more accurately than any organic doctor could ever hope to be... if you trust a robot to operate on you, that is. I could talk to you all day about the technical details, exactly what's on the mechadendrites- the mechanical tentacles- and how it all works... but the doc is all kinds of distracting."

Velvet nodded, getting the subtext.

"I got the interceptors installed the other day... if you think this looks gnarly right now, my back will send you for six... everything's going to be sore for another day after this whilst it heals... but once this is done, I'll have one more surgery left and I'll have both arms back."

"Well, whatever you need to get through this- eep!" Velvet said, putting her hands on Cobalt's remaining hand

Cobalt had surprised her when he frimly grapsed her hand "Thanks... just... can you stay with me whilst the 'doc does his work? Like, grab a book or some homework if you need to, but can you stay here... just knowing you're here makes this a lot more bearable."

* * *

Cobalt moved his new shoulder, still adjusting to the weight of the metal, down one of the _many_ lonely corridors of Outer Heaven, thinking aloud to himself.

He might be somewhat crazy, or at least unstable, but talking to himself did not automatically make him nutters, just an auditory learner. That's right.

"Heh... I could actually post a halfway decent argument about being an Anime-style Jesus figure if the plan goes off... I can just imagine it put into scripture and written up in bible-speak... It's even called Outer Heaven and occupies the same general direction. I suppose that means I'll have to keep an eye out for cults then, and figure out how to come back form the dead without becoming an Archlich or Vampire... somehow I doubt Metasoft or Inari'd give me that kind of free ride and-"

A cold breeze swept through the hallway and Cobalt could almost make out whispers on the edge of his hearing. Immediately Cobalt whipped Typhoon and his favourite Kukri out, knowing full well as both an amateur writer and a fan of dark fantasy that this was how a million extra-dimensional incursions started.

"I know you're there. I don't care if you're with the great old ones or the great dark ones, I'd sooner detonate the reactor core than let you on my Station." Cobalt challenged.

A hand on Cobalt's shoulder caused Cobalt to immediately lash out, and he felt his blade strike deep and true into whatever it was before Cobalt followed it up with a pair of bolts to where its head should have been.

That it was as easy as it was meant it didn't have an active aura, and wasn't armoured in Adamantine plates.

When Cobalt's sensitive eyes recovered form the bright muzzle-flash though, e could barely believe his eyes

"What the fuck?!"

* * *

"What is it Ruby?" Yang asked as her sister's scroll started ringing whilst they were on their way between classes

Ruby checked it, before her eyes went wide "Cobalt says he's going to be competing in the tournament!" She exclaimed

"What? But he's only got one arm- right, this is Cobalt we're talking about" Weiss said

"I can see Lisica and Ravaora, but who's Cobalt's fourth teammate?" Blake asked

"That's a good question. Have you seen a fourth person?" Yang asked

"No... I'll ask him" Ruby said as she texted Cobalt back

A reply wasn't long in coming

"It's a surprise" Ruby read out for her team "One of many I intend to unveil in the tournament. Wait and see"

"Knowing Cobalt? It'll be a robot" Weiss said

"Did anyone see Ravaora coming?" Blake asked

"Surely you don't mean to imply that Cobalt tore some other dolt out of their backwards world to bring them here"

Blake merely shrugged "It's possible. He's done it before."

"Unfortunately, I have to agree with you" Weiss said "There's honestly no telling what's going on in his head at times"

Ruby got another message at that moment, this one being a pre-recorded voicemail

"Honestly, I don't even know what goes on in my head anymore and- wait is that recor- oh Fu-"

Everyone stared at the scroll like it was possessed

"Case in point" Weiss said, lacking her earlier conviction

"Ladies and Gentlemen, it has been a wonderful tournament thus far this year, with many great performances from every team we've seen today." Port announced into the microphone

"That it has been, and there's certainly been far more twists and turns already, but given recent events, I can promise you that this next matchup will be a doozy" Oobleck responded into his own microphone

"Oh? And how do you know that?" Port asked

"Why, because one of my most Avid students takes part in it... Everyone, if you would please put your hands together for Teams CFVY... and Team CRML(CaRaMeL), both of Beacon Academy" Oobleck said

Team CFVY walked out normally, but this Team CRML, who seemed to generate some coomotion as no one in Beacon remembered a team with that name from Initiation or their classes, were conspicuously absent.

As CRML's absence drew out towards a painful and awkward minute, Coco ventured to ask "Where are they?"

As if to answer Coco's question, a large blue glyph six metres wide and formed of an odd 'Burning Winged Sword' sigil surrounded by words of a foreign and runic language arranged like a series of counter-rotating concentric circles appeared before four figures appeared in a flash of blue light.

Three of them were highly recognizable: after all, who forgets the fox faunus with nine white-tipped tails, or the red-skinned girl with large horns and a spade-tipped tail that clearly wasn't a faunus or human.

The most unfamiliar figure was a black-and-silver themed, well-muscled teen wearing a golden, rune-encrusted skull mask with glowing red eyes that lent him a ghoulish appearance, and a duster coat that obscured most of his body, barring his arms.

The Last of them was Cobalt Jinn, shitlord extraordinaire who was chugging a mana potion, suggesting to those who knew the drink that he was the one who had cast the spell.

"Cobalt?!" Velvet asked

Cobalt promptly choked on his drink when he heard velvet's voice from across the platform, spilling it all down his front amidst a sudden bout of coughing and spluttering.

*cough cough* "Velvet?!" *Cough* "Oh god it's in my nose! It burns!" *cough* Cobalt shouted as he took to clutching at his face "It smells like Liquorice!" *cough cough* "why?!"

"Well folks, we seem to be off to a great start already with beacon's most unpredictable student, and the battle hasn't even started" Port said chuckling at Cobalt's expense

"Quiet you!" Cobalt said, pointing menacingly at the commentator's box before coughing some more

Eventually Cobalt regained enough of his composure to drink a potion properly and team CRML got into ready positions.

Ravara produced a large, segmented metal whip made in a similar manner to nunchucks, but they stopped at six segments instead of two

The skull-masked teen produced a pair of large shotguns from under his duster, and a press of a button produced a pair of spring-loaded bayonets from underneath the barrel.

Lisica's hands dropped to her waist, where they were met by Seigi, which several onlookers later swore hadn't been there just moments before

Cobalt was the most blatantly obvious about his hammerspace though, and straight up pulled a large crescent-bladed halberd from within a fold of air and a flash of golden light. Like Ravaora's rod, Cobalt's Halberd had a smattering of runes arranged in neat lines along the haft of the polearm: one string along the side of the haft just underneath the crow's beak on the rear was a string of characters that, in a headache-inducing bit of magic, anyone could read in their native tongue as "Immortal Pheonix", and also possessed three 'words' along the sides that were unknown to most who could see them, designed to confer properties to the blade. The buttspike was a somewhat exaggerated diamond-shaped spear head that was thick and fat to accommodate a giant sapphire within the counter-weight. Again there were two runewords that, like every other rune on the weapon, glowed with arcane power.

"That's new" Fox remarked to Cobalt

"After the disaster at the Breach, I basically ended up retooling my entire arsenal, just for the tournament." Cobalt said, proudly

"No, I distinctly remember you being down an arm" Fox corrected

Cobalt raised his arm. His left sleeve had been cut down the stitching up to his elbow and easily fell away to reveal a new limb made of gold-trimmed black metal, with Cobalt's glowing blue runes running up and down the brilliant trim

"You like it? I do: I built the damn thing to be better than the old one could ever hope to be... you might've guessed, but I'm something of a transhumanist and being metahuman, specifically a cyborg, is a big plus for me." Cobalt bragged

"That seems different to the one you showed me yesterday" Velvet remarked, gaining a surprised look from her team

Cobalt reached up to his left shoulder with his right hand and twisted his arm slightly, and with a loud snap his arm came free, to be stored into his inventory. Cobalt swiftly replaced it with a much more noticeable replacement that possessed armour an inch thick and a large railing on the under-arm below the elbow. The pauldron alone was large enough to protect his head.

"I lied... A little bit when I said I was getting that arm installed. What I had installed was a socket that I could use to hotswap arms out... there's more than a few. I have a crapton of ideas and counting on both." Cobalt explained

"You thought this through" Coco remarked

"What can I say? I'm passionate about my hobbies and fighting." Cobalt replied with a bow

They were interrupted by Port clearing his throat into the microphone

At this, the teams seemed to remember where they were, and got into ready positions.

"The match will begin in 3... 2... 1..." Port announced before hitting the button which started the match

The spinners spun and gave them the mountain and the sea terrains. Once the necessary arena was in place, a coundown counted down and a buzzer which signalled the start of the fighting

"Ragna-rock-and-roll!" Cobalt shouted as his warcry as his team charged

* * *

"Looks like Balty was busy" Emerald remarked, watching the tournament on her scroll

"You said it" Mercury responded, watching the scene unfold before them.

Ravaora was playing keep-away against Yatsuhashi with some kind of rapid-fire energy blast and that Misty Step spell she'd shown off on the train, in addition to that whip which she used for free and cheap hits.

"Ravaora doesn't seem to want to engage in melee against Yatsuhashi" Emerald noted to Cinder

"It seems she relies on range and her spells. Rearline support" Mercury said with a predatory grin. Taking out the rearline fighters was something he enjoyed quite a lot.

The unknown teen, whom the scoreboard stated was named "Magnus DeSable" was duking it out with Fox, attempting to get a good hit with his shotgun on the teen. Fox was much faster, but Magnus seemed to dissolve into smoke every time Fox went to hit him

"this Magnus kid seems to be able to go intangible... though he doesn't seem to be able to attack whilst in this state. The only tricky thing about him is forcing him out of the stalemate" Mercury noted

Cinder nodded and added that to her notes

Lisica had drunk a can of something and was moving fast enough to leave a blur, and had forced Coco into a defensive melee encounter more than once before Coco had managed to kick her back out to range, where her Minigun was proven useless as Lisica simply dodged the hailstorm of bullets.

"Whatever was in that can was potent stuff. I don't think anyone could hit the animal." Mercury noted "Though I doubt that's all she can do. She's holding back, and she's holding back a lot. I don't think team CRML is fighting at full strength, besides Ravaora."

"Wait a second... Cobalt and Velvet haven't moved an inch." Emerald said

"What are they waiting for- where'd he get that?" Mercury said before Cobalt produced what appeared to be a tea set and a thermos of something, likely tea, and appeared to invite Velvet to drink with him.

"What is he doing?" Emerald asked

"Wait, wasn't he supposed to be going out with her?" Mercury asked

"I didn't really see them together often" Emerald said

"Cobalt's supposedly Oobleck's apprentice. It makes sense that he'd keep Cobalt busy" Cinder said as a certain image of a castle flashed on her scroll's screen "If he's doing this, we can exploit that"

* * *

"Sorry about all this." Cobalt said as he sipped at the mint tea in his cup "But you and I both know this tournament's a bust. I really, really want to kick Mercury in the cherries though, so I'm going to have to ask forgiveness for kicking your teams asses"

"I suppose it would've eventually happened." Velvet said before sipping hers

"true." Cobalt remarked, watching as Lisica produced a spherical grenade that had been painted white.

"Oop- looks like it's time for these" Cobalt remarked, holding a gas mask out to Velvet whilst attempting to don his with one hand.

Velvet took the mask from him as white smoke filled the arena for a breif moment, producing five fits of coughing.

As the smoke cleared, everyone looked for the culprit, barring Cobalt who already knew where she was, what she'd done, and what she was about to do.

A sharp whistle caught everyone's attention, dragging it upwards where Lisica seemingly hung in the air.

Coco immediately raised her machine gun to blast her out the sky with copious quantities of dakka but only heard clicking.

A loud rattle was heard as a familiar-looking belt of ammo landed next to her.

By now it was too late. Lisica produced a metal baseball bat and with the full force of her descent clocked Coco around the face with a loud 'BONK!', denting the flimsy metal.

Coco did an about face, and managed three steps before collapsing, her aura depleted.

"Minor concussion." Cobalt remarked, "she'll have a headache, but she'll be fine in two hours. Keep her talking when she wakes up... and I'll want my mask back"

Velvet hesitantly removed her mask and returned it to Cobalt.

"Don't worry about smoke when we fight. I am a harlequin with the whole world as my audience. It would be remiss of me not to perform, and even worse for me to cover that performance up with cheap tricks." Cobalt said

"oh" was all Velvet said

Ravaora was the next to down her opponent, Yatsuhashi succumbing to the hailstorm of eldritch blasts, thoroughly tired at having to chase down a teleporter, but a cheap blow from Fox also sent her for six as her Mana pool was extremely low after having cast so many Misty Step spells.

For his efforts, Magnus eventually dropped a shotgun as he was hit in the face by Fox. Magnus grabbed Fox's wrist and crushed his weapon around it, slowly and menacingly prying the offending limb away from his face before ending Fox with a single slug to the face that blasted him outside the ring... after skipping across the water of the ocean biome twice

"Your Kung-fu is weak" Magnus said, his voice low and gravelly and grating on the ears.

"If we cold get a medical team to check on Fox, I'm certain that something fractured in that exchange. Probably a rib" Cobalt called out.

Velvet gulped nervously next to Cobalt.

Cobalt patted her on the back to reassure her... and also to dip five sticky fingers downwards to steal her camera

It took less than a second for Cobalt to snap off a selfie and offer Velvet her camera back

Velvet knew Cobalt knew what her semblance was, and was wide-eyed as she hastily took back her camera.

"I figured we could have a mirror-match. Something spectacular to really wow the crowds." Cobalt said "As I said, I am a performer. Let's give people one to remember"

Velvet gave Cobalt a nod of understanding and activated her semblance as Cobalt teleported to the other side of the arena.

Cobalt twirled Immortal Pheonix around his hand once before slamming the buttspike into the ground, creating a spiderweb of cracks the glowed briefly with aura as an electric guitar began playing with no source

 **(Theme Song: Dynasty Warriors Online: Theme of Lu Bu)**

Velvet did the same, and the blue outline of Cobalt's Runic adamantine halberd appeared in her hands, a serious look on her face, her stance and posture speaking of a woman capable of fiery passion.

Cobalt knew that Velvet played up the timid act and could fight as well as any huntress could... with said huntress's weapon as well... After all, unless you'd paid a visit to Caerbannog, who'd suspect the timid, harmless, little rabbit was a capable and effective fighter.

He smiled. She smiled. He readied himself. She readied herself... and then they charged at each other, clashing with visible force in the centre of the arena.

* * *

 **I'm going to leave the actual fight for next week. Sorry bros and broettes', but it's wednesday, and that means I need to post** _ **something**_ **.**

 **That, and I want to do the fight actual justice.**

 **See you guys next week!**


	44. The Fox and the Rabbit's mirror match

The first clash was... explosive, to say the least.

The shockwave blew away a lot of the debris of the last three fights, and would've nearly forced Magnus and Lisica off the arena, if Magnus hadn't put barbs on the bottom of his shoes and Lisica wasn't using my recently-declassified sticking technique which used a small 'loop' of aura to glue oneself to just about any surface.

And by 'recently declassified', I meant 'part of the first wave of techniques I'd been practising in secret for months to unveil for the big tournament.'

Velvet and I struggled against one another, but she'd copied my semblance, not just my weapons and skills and knowledge, seemingly down to the profile... and she was using my own strength and strength enhancers against me.

Then I took a step back and twisted the axe blades so that the crescents were interlocking and pulled.

Velvet, not expecting it, was yanked towards me where I performed my ballsiest move to date.

I leaned over and kissed her on the lips.

The lights promptly went out in Velvets head as she attempted to process that.

"Sorry honeybun, but all is fair in love and war" I added, and regretfully headbutted her in the forehead "and I think this counts as both."

Velvet's response, much to her credit, was to go for an upswing that caught me in the cherries.

I was suddenly very glad I'd thought to wear an over-engineered adamantium codpiece today... the impact still jarred my jewels and I winced along with every other male in the arena.

"I deserved that" I admitted

Velvet looked at me somewhere between awe and bewilderment

I tapped my prosthetic's knuckles against my crotch, creating a metallic clanging noise "I like to think of myself as prepared" I explained

I took the moment of distraction to lash out suddenly and punch Velvet in the sternum with my left arm... this is significant, because Muscle strength is all about fibre density... and I'd packed the arm with a technology formerly unkown to remnant: Carbon Nano-tbe (CNT) Muscles. Human muscle fiber maxes out at about 100 microns thick. CNT stuff was nearly 1000 times more dense, with indidivual fibers being nanometers thick... I 'had the strength of a jackhammer [in my arm]', and- properly set up- Runic Adamantium, which the bones in my arm was made out of, practically requires an act of god to bend or twist with conventional means... or a decent runesmith like myself to deactivate the runes.

All this is to say that I punched Velvet clear across the arena, and if she hadn't dipped into my moveset to stop, she'd have sailed right into the duelling barrier.

As it was, she managed a glyph that caught her and flung her like a slingshot back at me.

Her halberd scraped against my metal shoulder before Velvet flipped and landed behind me before ducking under the swing of my halberd that was aimed to catch her neck, and then raised her halberd to catch my overhead swing on the haft of her halberd.

My Halberd was shifted into the ground by her right and Velvet punished the mistake with a sharp jab to the sternum.

I used my left arm to brace myself and slow the slide as my boots failed to find friction.

A small notification informed me of something that I couldn't help but smile at.

I picked myself up, leaning on my Halberd because I was a lazy bum, and activated my Halberd's first Limit Break Attack.

Mousou really left no doubts as to the source material for the halberd. My aura became visible around me as the effects of triggering the limit break created a rising vortex of energy that caught small pieces of rubble as the light level seemed to drop to that of a dimly lit room with no windows, save anything with a soul which showed up as bright as day and, for bonus points, the theme track moved into the awesome guitar solo. I particularly enjoyed that last part myself.

I set my halberd and charged, the normal way. Velvet moved as if in slow motion as my charge caught her in the stomach, lifting off her feet as pirhouetted and brought my halberd down on her back bouncing her against the ground, before gathering power in the gem at the base and firing off a large soul spear, which caught Velvet in the stomach again and flung her across the stadium.

I know I'm not supposed to spin whilst in combat, but it was a special move, she was in slo-mo, and I wanted to make it look freaking awesome.

The buzzer sounded across the stadium, signalling the end of the match.

I felt the need to cough, so I coughed... but I kept going after the 'just a cough' point, and felt myself cough up something. I spat, and noticed it was glowing blue. It then occurred to me that I was extremely lightheaded now and I noticed that I was suffering a sort of mana-exhaustion.

"Oh fuck" was all I managed before I passed out

* * *

Qrow glanced at the bottle in his hands, then back at the television.

"I'm seeing this right, right? The blue one is doing all kinds of crazy shit, the faunus just summoned a buncha clones and-"

"I'm seeing it too" The Bartender said

"I thought I was just drunk" Qrow said

The bartender raised an eyebrow at him

"-er" Qrow corrected

* * *

When I woke up, it was to Lisica dumping an elixir down my throat through a straw

I sat upright and nearly hacked up a lung with the coughing fit.

"Remind me never to do that." I said, grasping at my head.

Lisica conjured a large chunk of ice and handed it to me.

"That's much better. Thanks. Nice to see you do care." I joked

Lisica pouted

"I know, I'm a shitty boss/brother who's always got you on some errand." I admitted "things'll hopefully ease up once we're off crunch-time."

Lisica shot me a look

"You know as well as I do that shit could go pear-shaped once the smoke clears"

Lisica sighed and teleported away

"Jeez, I haven't had a silent conversation like that in a while." I noted, before standing up and punching skywards to show I was alright.

The resulting cheer was deafening, and did not help my headache at all.

* * *

"Cinder?" Emerald asked

Cinder was unexpressive... though her eyes were glues to the screen. Eventually she delivered a verdict

"He is but one man... no matter how powerful he gets, he can be taken down... He showed a lot of vulnerabilities in this fight as well: and he is far from invincible."

* * *

Charles opened the door to reveal Teams RWBY, CFVY and JNPR

As they entered they saw me at the bar nursing a tall glass of wine

"Afternoon, all" I said, raising my glass to them in greetings

"You said you had answers" Coco said

"Eeyup... I can start with the obvious and tell you that Magnus is no random bloke I yanked from between dimensions like Ravaora was" I said

"He's not?" Velvet asked

"Nope" I said, popping the p, as was obligatory.

"So who is he?" Blake asked

"Better you ask him yourself" I said

The teams looked around, but didn't see anyone

"where is he?" Coco asked

"he's here and he's totally missed his cue" I said, grumpy now "He lives in the shadows... specifically, _my_ shadow"

 _"fine"_ Magnus said as he arose, from my shadow

"Is that a semblance?" Weiss asked

I had to suppress a laugh "No... No... Everyone, meet Magnus DeSable... though you may know him as-"

Magnus's form shifted in a mess of swirling tendrils

"Manus the Black" I finished

There were several horrified gasps

"Turns out it's kinda hard to kill Melancholy, anger and all that jazz without completely removing a good part of what makes a person 'them'… They say a person becomes a much stronger, better person when they make peace with their inner demons and recognize their flaws... also I may or may not owe him my life because I technically died in the Breach and he kept my heart and lungs going so I didn't suffer brain-death... And since I'm crazy like a fox, I ended up extending an olive branch, and whilst I keep a couple of laser guns and flashbang grenades around, He's 'on parole' essentially, pending good behaviour... also Magnus gives me an easy acronym to work with for my Team Name in those tedious and cumbersome official documents: C.R.M.L. Caramel."

"And what are his thoughts on that?" Blake asked

 _"I am given freedom of movement, so long as I maintain this guise of 'normalcy'… and Cobalt does not share my weakness to direct light with others"_ Magnus said. Not only did his voice set teeth on edge, but seeing a voice issue from a creature with no mouth was disconcerting as well

"Plus I can give him oodles and oodles of his favourite food: Grimm." I said "He works like most amorphous bio-monstrosities do: You feed him and he gets bigger, nastier and able to unleash more and more devastating attacks... in a word, he is an anti-grimm nuke and the ultimate 'I win' button against them... especially as he doesn't damage people or property more than a fight between two goliaths would. It's a shame and a godsend there aren't more of him running around."

"He eats grimm?!" Fox asked

"Why yes. Yes he does." I said, before taking another sip of my wine

"Are you drunk again, Cobalt?" Velvet asked

I paused for a moment, stood up and walked a few paces and noted I wasn't having trouble standing up.

"Nope... tipsy at best" I said before sitting down again "I've been diluting the Fenrisian stuff with regular wines... I'm still working on the exact ratios for a per-glass dosage, but I'm getting close... besides, I haven't been drinking that long. I didn't want to be unconscious on the floor when you got here, you see."

"I see..."

"let's see... next on the big list of changes would be both my weapons, arm and skills. The arm's a prosthesis for the one I lots getting rid of Magnus... The weapons are new guys I had to produce to replace the ones that were broken or stolen in the fight vs Magnus, and I pulled out all the stops to forge them: Runic Adamantium. It's unbreakable and cuts like it's edgier than this cunt" I said, pointing my thumb at Magnus

Magnus, for his part, glowered at me.

"...let's see... that skull isn't a mask, his face is literally a human skull with eyes, and lastly all those skills I unveiled or used for the first time? I've been holding a library of techniques back. I'm... not going to lie, I'm pretty dang powerful... but I want to hold those back for when I need them, as my ace in the hole. Two of them don't do damage so much as deal instantaneous death, distinguished from each other only in method and by how much you suffer when I pull them off. I'm not pulling out all the stops for every battle."

I took another sip of my wine before gesturing around

"Lastly... This place is done up like a party because I wanted to throw one in celebration of Round One. JNPR you really should've gotten your special combo attacks sorted out ahead of time... and you shoulda chosen something beyond the shipping names people picked out for you: Only RWBY actually has a comprehensive list... My apologies to any lingering soreness the Elixir didn't clear up to CFVY... and RWBY you did an awesome job... lastly, before you guys join the party, a quick PSA: I've gotten word from some secure channels that an illusionist is playing some _REALLY_ mean pranks that have landed otherwise innocent people in some very hot water... the illusions appear to be targeted and mental, as no one else saw them, so keep on a lookout for anything unusual."

"okay, I guess." Blake said

"With all that cleared up, I didn't set out wine and snacks just to eat them all myself. Go nuts you guys"

* * *

 **Well, I hope I lived up to the hype. Have a good week all of you.**


	45. Gifts

Normally, waking up is an uneventful event... in fact, it's the single most boring event of an entire day, so unless you're doing some slice of life story, you never begin with waking up. Two exceptions to this rule are when something unusual happens during the morning routine, or you're some Douglas Adams-tier writer who plans to use it to establish a character...

...and very few people are as good as Douglas Adams.

So I find it noteworthy- as a man who was a few years from the other invite to Hogwarts (Yer' a Wizard, Cobalt)- when I wake up with a slight headache (not so unusual, I had been experimenting with 'super shitface': the wonderful Fenrisian brew) and a large, warm weight in my arms.

It took me a moment to figure out what that last part was... though I got a pretty good idea when Gamer chimed in

 _ **You have gained the 'Lover's Embrace' buff: +15% XP for 16hrs**_

That was enough to spark my memory into motion: I remembered being... maybe a bit buzzed in the party, since the party had gotten into full swing and we'd all had a few drinks in us, even Ruby, and as a bit of an accident, I might've ended up making out with Velvet. In retrospect, it was the stupid cliché scene too, where we'd kissed, and broken it off since we were both too awkward and shy… before going back to furiously making out.

There had been cheering, I remembered that... then we'd retreated to a corner so we wouldn't disturb the festivities.

I remembered getting all dopey and melancholic at the same time, how I'd bemoaned not being able to spend longer with Velvet before shit hit the fan... and Velvet had agreed and somehow we'd decided to make it a night to remember... the specifics of that exchange were lost somewhere in the haze of alcohol and... well, the events that proceeded after… I suppose there's nothing like the end of the world to prompt the phrases 'fuck it, why not?' and 'I don't want to die a virgin'

"Is something the matter, Cobalt?" Velvet asked sleepily

"Nothing" I reassured her "I just woke up a little confused"

Velvet didn't so much say anything as she just made a noise of acknowledgement and buried herself closer into my neck and shoulder.

Now that I was awake, it occurred to me that I'd woken up... for the first time since I'd received Outer Heaven, so long ago.

I decided that if this could happen more often, I might actually start looking at getting Rest XP.

...if Coco doesn't decide to string me up by the 'coinpurse' when she hears about this… that was an exchange I'd be making through a payphone

* * *

 _ **You have gained the Well Fed (light) buff: +5 to all stats for 4hrs**_

"Master Jinn! I don't believe I've ever seen you at breakfast before" Charles commented

"You might not have noticed, but this morning's far from my typical fare"

"Are you referring to Miss Scarlatina?" Charles asked

"I'm right here, Charles" Velvet said

"That about sums it up, I believe" I said "Though I made sure I'd gotten a most of this morning's business out of the way today… I wasn't anticipating this, but I can't say I'm at all unhappy that my hangover prep was extra useful."

"You make it sound so clinical." Velvet commented

I just shrugged and said "I'm just happy that I was a responsible person for once, and it paid off big time… because now I get to spend some time with you"

Velvet groaned and rolled her eyes

a thought occurred to me, and I couldn't help but chuckle

When Velvet asked I merely said "I just thought it was funny how I was more awkward than a joke at a funeral and you were painfully shy when we met… now here we are, joking and teasing one another. It's just amusing to see how… far we've come… as people… and as a couple."

I paused for a moment as that train of thought lead to another realization "I need to remember to buy that fox a present."

"Which one?" Velvet asked "There's like, five of them"

"Lisica. She was the one who made me decide 'screw it' and act on a gut feeling that I wasn't too aware of… and you remember my half-baked plan to see if you'd go out with me"

Velvet laughed "'Can you babysit my fox' was certainly an original idea"

"It worked didn't it?" I pointed out

We both shared a laugh

I looked at my watch and noticed the time

"ah crap… I need to get into costume. Looks like it's time to pull on the interwoven strands of the web of fate again."

"The what?"

"The next stage in the top-secret plan to outplay Cinder, Batman style." I explained

"that doesn't exactly clarify things" Velvet said

"All will become clear in two days time" I said

"I'll hold you to that" Velvet said

"I plan to explain the whole thing to everyone in a giant livestream. You'll know, as will everyone else in the world… I hate having to keep secrets, especially from you and our friends"

* * *

"Alright, Mr. Torchwick" I said "I have two questions for you"

"Lay them on me"

"So, have you seen the footage I provided Neo?"

"I did."

"How would you like to survive… actually survive, and earn yourself a pardon in the process?" I asked

"I'm listening"

"All I ask is a simple bait and switch: place the blue-marked scroll into the port when you play your part… and I ensure that you become all but untouchable." I said "You have until you place a scroll in the port to decide… but I do recommend at least seeing what the fireworks are before you do"

"Don't have to tell me twice"

"Glad to see that we've reached an accord… I'd hate to see you die in the coming storm… I do want to be clear, however, that siding with Cinder carries some consequences: Do not expect any of the ringleaders of this event to escape Vale alive. I do not condone genocide."

"If you want to kill me, you'll have to get in line" Roman replied

"Try it, and see if I don't jump the queue"

* * *

"Yo, Jaune!"

"Cobalt?"

"You remember how I said I had ideas for a Crocea Mors dos-point-oh and asked if I could produce something for you?" I asked

"Yeah, I think you said something about that"

"Well, I finally got those designs hammered out, and You might just happen to like it." I said

"Let's see it" Jaune said

I produced my design.

It looked much like the old Crocea Mors did, however the edges of the shield were sharpened, like an axe, and a second shield rested on top of the now permanently-unfolded one

"huh" Jaune said

"oh trust me, this baby is more than 'huh'… see, I based it off something called a Charge Blade."

I drew the sword, which was slightly larger than Jaune's current arming sword. Not by much, but it was noticeable.

"you may notice a small device in the crossguard and ricasso. That stores leftover kinetic energy from impacts with other objects… hit something to charge it up basically. When it's glowing, sheathe it and hit this button and it dumps the energy into a special battery in the shield… which then powers the real magic of this weapon: a Kinetic emitter. Basically there's a trigger on the handle of the shield that allows it to fire a kinetic blast, with two settings: a short-but-wide ranged burst designed to knock opponents away and stun them, and a narrow and focused shot that's like having Nora smash them with Magnhild, but in bullet form. Be very afraid of the business end of that."

Jaune was clearly impressed

"but wait, there's more: simply sheathe the sword and hit this lock..." I said, demonstrating and letting go of the shield as the sword's handle doubled in length and the shield rotated 180 degrees as the sheathe extended itself, changing the sword 'n board into a battleaxe that would make any Orcish warlord proud.

"… and it mechashifts. The Bonus feature is that the emitter will also deliver shockwaves to compliment blows with the axe form if it has charge in it. Use the Sword and shield to fight as you normally do: defensively and at close range, the axe is for when you need to put down the punishment on something that's just refusing to stay down or defeat heavy armour without half-swording and the muderstroke and the emitter gives you a ranged option, so you're not relying entirely on your team to deal with ranged flying opponents, like Nevermores"

I handed it and a maintenance manual to Jaune

"All of that, is now yours… use it how you will. The construction is of tempered adamantium, so it won't break, chip or damage under most circumstances, maintenance is more on the emitter under the secondary shield… on a side note, the adamantium and tech put together has a lien value that would make _Mr._ Schnee weep with envy" I added

"You're serious?" Jaune asked

"You tell me. Give me a good guess; how much is a metal that is nigh-indestructible once properly forged and not native to Remnant worth, roughly." I said "hint: four figures per pound"

"wow" Jaune said, holding it closer to him.

"You can pay me back by using it to slay Grimm." I said "I'd start swinging if I were you: you've got some acclimatising to do… oh, and before I forget, I've been handing out these necklaces… they're good luck charms… like, they actually make you luckier. Here's yours…"

"Thanks Cobalt… I'm gonna get some practice in, I think."

"Just hold a mo' and put your necklace on. There's a really neat thing they do"

Jaune shrugged and put his on. It didn't take long for the gem to change from a pure white to a bright yellow colour

"They link to the wearer's aura, so only you can wear it and change colour doing so… and it'll always find its way back to you if you lose it" I explained "I don't have time to make full rounds, unfortunately… can I ask you to hand these three out to the rest of your teammates?"

"Sure, Cobalt."

* * *

I knocked on CFVY's door and was greeted by Velvet opening it

"Hey Velv"

"Cobalt?"

"I've been giving out a lotta gifts lately, and I figured you might like this" I said, offering her an adamantine ring with gold-inlaid runes and a large blue gemstone, courtesy of the marble I'd been donated

"Don't you think you're going a bit fast?" Velvet asked

"What?" I asked

"You two only did the do last night, you're seriously asking that now?" Coco said

"What? Asking what?"

"You just gave Velvet a ring"

I blinked in realization "You think that was an engagement ring?!"

"It's not?"

"No!… er, no. Gods know I'm not that desperate… the ring's supposed to work as a focus and energy storage. The idea was to create something small that could be used to make magic and semblances easier and more effective. The Gemstone is the same sort I use to create magical foci in staves and the like… It's a signet ring, not an engagement one. Right hand, not the left." I explained

CFVY breathed a sigh of relief

"You made that?" Yatsuhasi asked

"I make a lot of things. Yeah. That's one of them" I replied

"It's good work. Something that enhances aura is hard to come by."

"Thanks… I try to give nice things out… oh, and before I forget, I've been handing these necklaces out… probability manipulation's tricky business, but they're true, legit good luck charms."

Coco raised an eyebrow "Really? What makes these so different?"

"The short and simple answer is Magic, and lots of it." I said, handing the necklaces to Velvet "the long answer involves theology, of all things, and a contact that can get things not normally found on Remnant for a hugely inflated price."

"How does he do that?" Fox asked

"Insider access to the same assholes who made me a gamer, and who can fling some middle-aged dork across the omniverse for fun and profit."

"Did you just seriously refer to yourself as a middle-aged dork?" Fox asked

"You don't want to know what my life was like before coming to Beacon. Middle-aged dork is a completely fair assessment." I said "Anywho, why don't you put yours on, Velvet?"

"Uh, Sure." Velvet said, donning the gem, causing it to turn a scarlet red

"They're Intensely magical… they bind to the wearer the first time you put them on. That one is yours forever and always now, and it won't work for anyone else."

"wow"

"Anywho, enjoy the rest of your day, folks." I said

"thanks Cobalt, you too" Velvet said

* * *

"Yo, Yang!" I shouted across the training room

"What is it, Balty?" Yang asked

"I've got a small quest to give everyone a gift today, and I had a few bits and bobs lying around that I thought would suffice… I figured you might appreciate a few belts of those old 12-gauge 'grimm-killer' rounds I had… y'know, if you ever need a better kick and your explosive rounds just aren't cutting the mustard."

"Sure, I guess" Yang said

"I also have a few necklaces I'm handing out." I said, holding up one "these things are good luck charms and have the odd defensive boost as well. You aren't invincible with it, but it'll save some extra aura for when you want to really hammer someone into the dirt."

"Big Gem" Yang noted

"Apparently the bigger the gem, the more powerful he enchantment you can anchor to it." I said

"huh" Yang noted

"Yeah, sorta how all the industrial-grade batteries and transformers are the size of cars, you can pack a bigger fireball spell into a crystal ball than a ring-sized gem."

"Neat"

"Yeah. Luck is tricky to nail down enough to put into a spell that fortifies it, so you need a big gem with some special properties if you want to build a self-sustaining enchantment." I explained

"Big gem, big spell. Got it." Yang summarized

"Awesome... can I trust you not to wear another three to give to the rest of your team? I have a lot to do to prepare my grand surprise for the kingdoms"

"Sure."

"awesome, thanks." I said, heading for the door

* * *

 **Later**

* * *

"Looks like I owe someone twenty lien" I said as I stared across the arena at my opponents, neither of which I recognized.

The first was a man with dual swords, the other a woman with two sharply-angled kukris… or were they boomerangs?

"Time is running short" Lisica reminded me "Preparations still need to be made… and we haven't practised our routine for the next fight nearly enough"

"I know… let's end this quickly" I said

* * *

 **Eh... it's filler. Some things needed to happen, tying up some loose ends... The necklaces _are_ in fact engraved with a minor rune to boost luck, but that's not all they do... I'm sure I'll have, like, eight correct guesses by tomorrow at the latest.**

 **Next up: one of those fights everyone says are really awesome. I've nearly got half of chapter 45 out already, so we might see an early update if I make similar progress on Chapter 46... _MIGHT_ being the operative word here.  
**

 **Yoshtars Grandma: "So, hows the story going?"  
"Really well."  
"Still got those 300 followers?"  
"yeah- hold on, lemme pull up the number..."**

 **"SWEET GOOGLY MOOGLY! 590 subscribers!"**

 **That's right folks: There's nearly 600 people who tune in every Wednesday to read the things I manage to get out my head and on paper.  
600 people is not a small number... okay, well, it is on the internet with 'big' figures starting at quadruple digits... but that's, like, the student population back when I went to highschool.  
You people make me feel very special, knowing that somewhere out there are 600 people who really like the things that I do.**

 **edit (again): So, I hear that a bunch of you guys are calling Pheonix Champion out on putting a Kitsune familiar in his story, calling him a rip-off of me.  
Please stop, he has, in fact, come to me and sought my permission to do so, and he has my blessing in that matter.  
For those of you who have no clue what I'm harping on about, go check out Pheonix Champion's fic 'Verdant gamer'.  
There's a bit of a story here too: For the longest time, PC and I bounced ideas off one another, and he has helped me hash out a number of ideas more properly... as, like it says in chapter one, this was not completely planned... in fact, it was almost not planned out at all... Pheonix Champion has been instrumental in that regard... it seems only fair he get more leeway than normal in this matter, for helping make GfG possible.  
PC also has my blessing for a future crossover, where Wes and Cobalt meet up, should he decide to make it.**


	46. Round two

Lisica and I activated our flip belts and executed an experimental and very risky manoeuvre, that had the potential for a gigantic payoff if it worked.

See, a flip belt works by controlling gravity around the wearer, making them weigh more or less as they need with a simple mental command, which is often used for 'impossible' leaps, graceful landings, and generally moving like a stone skipping along water around one's opponents.

Lisica and I overcharged ours, risking burning out the delicate Eldar Technology in the process. We lifted a good foot off the floor before, in twin streaks of Blue and Gold, we did some freaky stuff with gravity to fling ourselves at our opponents like the worlds largest slingshot projectiles.

Fans of Mass Effect may recognize this manouevre as the Vanguard's Biotic Charge... but our opponents from team COMT didn't know that, and were generally expecting both of us to have a hard top speed a fraction of using ourselves as projectiles

The move was effective in shunting our opponents to the far side of the arena. Unfortunately, and massively to their credit they both recovered spectacularly fast and with a gust of wind and what looked to be gravitic distortion, they were able to catch themselves mid-air and remain inside the arena.

"Noice" I commented as Lisica drew Seigi, and I pulled out Albion for the first time.

Albion was a Kriegsmesser, made from insanely sharp runic adamantium. I loved all the real-world lore about how they were made to bypass a ban on commoners carrying swords. This too had a HF electrical unit in the hilt, allowing me to turn it into a painful shockblade or matter-disrupting power sword at will... it was the next best thing to a lightsaber, really.

The man opposite us swung his swords and a blade of pressurized wind shot forth, which Lisica and I dodged, just as a pair of boomerangs went overhead.

The irony of being Australian-born and being the one having boomerangs used on me was not lost.

I stood back up, and then dodged to the side to let the boomerangs pass, having seen too many cartoons to let the returning throwing weapon hit me in the back. That might get Wile E. Coyote, but I made a point of learning from the mistakes of anything that antagonizes Bugs Bunny.

"So, Liz, you take the Xena, warrior princess wannabe and I've got edgy anime protagonist #45371, now with more wind-swords." I said

Lisica nodded

"What the hell are you going on about" The guy asked me

"I take back the edgy part, please continue." I said.

"What?"

Lisica fired off a bolt of foxfire at 'Xena', ending the parlay early

A simple leap carried me towards my foe, and Albion kicked up fragments of stone as it slammed into the arena floor

I noted the terrain for anything environmental hazards he might try to blow me into. We'd gotten the forest, mountain, ice and water environments,... so no problems there.

Instead of yanking my sword out, I wrapped my hand around my opponent's face and threw him by the head across the arena, towards the water environment.

I'd had this wonderful idea for a crazy awesome spectacle.

As... I think they'd said his name was Crimson pulled himself onto the ship in the water biome, Lisica got a lucky break with a gigantic punch that launched Teala at Crimson. Unfortunately, she only skittered across the deck instead of hitting anything for bonus damage.

Lisica then transformed into the form of a giant fox as I drew Immortal Phoenix and mounted up, for one of the most intimidating cavalry charges in the history of Remnant... coumpunded by the fact that when we hit water we didn't stop and we began running on the water instead, using a modification of the technique we used to stop the whole thing where Cell punches Goku through eight mountains and a skyscraper.

...I wondered how many of Jesus' miracles I would pull off before this is all over

As we continued on, I swiped the water at Lisica's side and had her lift the water up into a sudden and massive tidal wave... that we then began to run down.

Full pipe, man.

The water obscured the strike, but the blow had cleaved the boat they'd been standing on in two.

* * *

"That was AWESOME!" Nora shouted

"It was certainly over the top" Ren noted

"Cobalt's certainly come a long way" Pyrrha said

"That's putting it lightly, Pyrrha." Jaune said

* * *

Crimson crawled onto the sandbars at the edge of the lake.

That halberd had missed him and Teal by a hair, but they'd been swept up in the wave that Cobalt had been freaking riding a car-sized fox up.

What was worse was that they pulled it off so flawlessly that Crimson couldn't entirely say they hadn't practised it.

What the hell was he?

Crimson pulled himself to his feet and tried to catch his breath. He was soaking wet, and had taken a worse thirty-second beatdown than he'd had ever... and that was saying something.

Mercifully, his aura still had a good hit or two from a normal person left in it before he was eliminated.

His musings were interrupted when a familiar-looking sword landed in front of him.

Crimson turned around to see Cobalt disappear in a flash of blue

"Nothing personal, kid" Cobalt said from behind him

Crimson felt two hot lances of pain rake across his back and the buzzer sounded to let him know he was out of aura.

* * *

I wiped imaginary blood off my sword and sheathed it in one almost-automatic, practised motion and turned to face Teal, who was busy scrambling for ground

I made it three steps before something clicked though, and a dreadful realisation shot through me.

"Oh god... I just word-for-word did the 'Coldsteel the hedgehog' thing..."

"The what?" Teala asked

"Teleporting behind an opponent and saying 'nothing personal' before ending them... I feel... dirty, now... this is a whole new low for me..."

* * *

Lisica stared at Cobalt as the panic attack got into full-swing and he curled up in the foetal position, babbling about horrible OC's and how he was 'better than that'.

"For fuck's sake" Lisica complained, pinching the bridge of her nose... breaking stealth as she did so

"Does he do this often?" Teala asked

"No... he's just making a mountain out of a molehill... about a reference normal people won't get." Lisica replied

"Is he going to be alright?" Teala asked

"Hold a second whilst I change the answer to yes" Lisica said, walking over grabbing him by the waist

"Wait, what- no no nonononono!" Cobalt shouted as Lisica pulled him into a German Suplex that cratered the tiles under the impact point and knocked him out, depleting his aura dangerously low whilst doing so.

"When he wakes up, he'll have forgotten all about this." Lisica declared to a world-audience of shocked gasps and sweatdrops.

"Did... did you just... do that?" Teala asked "was that entirely necessary?"

"He's stopped bitching, hasn't he?" Lisica replied

"You knocked him out!" Teala shouted

Lisica just laughed and walked closer

"He'll be fine... I'd be more worried about what I'm going to do to you, if I'm willing to do that to my brother." Lisica said, her voice taking low, threatening, venemous quality

Teala jolted alert again and raised her kukris

"Kyuubi~"

* * *

Teala's world went black as Lisica shouted "PAWNCH!" And her face exploded into pain

She recovered not long after, against slumped against the edge of the arena, just in time to catch the action replay on the giant holomonitor, where Lisica had punched her with an exploding many-tailed fox made of fire.

…and then the camera zoomed in on her unconscious body, which had little cartoon foxes chasing each other in a circle around her head.

A small part of her noted that this was somewhat tamer than what her imagination had conjured up earlier

"You alright?" Teala recoiled from Lisica

"I- uh"

"Here, drink these. Cobalt found a recipe for a sort of miracle medicine and makes more than we could ever use." Lisica said, handing her two small jars, one filled with a red liquid, the other with blue.

"I- thanks... I guess." Teala said

"In Cobalt's words "We made the mess, we should help clean it up"." Lisica said

"That's an odd way of looking at things"

"Cobalt's an odd person" Lisica said with a shrug before walking towards Cobalt, hoisting him with a fireman's hoist and teleporting out.

"Well there you have it folks, truly it is impossible to predict what Cobalt or his team will do next... " Port announced over the loudspeaker.

* * *

 **Later, in an infirmary aboard Outer Heaven**

* * *

Cobalt got his revenge when Lisica stood too close to his bed as she exposed him to the smelling salts, and Cobalt ended up full-force headbutting her in the face when he bolted upright.

"Gah!" Lisica shouted, clutching at her nose

"Oh take a spoon of concrete and harden the fuck up, princess, I barely tapped you" Cobalt said

"You'd expect I'd get a little sympathy"

"My field of fucks to give ran barren when you suplexed me to lala-land."

Lisica's reply was interrupted by a loud and startling number of messages

 _ **You have completed Round 1 of the Vytal Tournament!**_

 _ **You have gained 250,000 exp**_

 _ **You have defeated Team CFVY!**_

 _ **You have gained 750,000 exp**_

 _ **You have Completed Round 2 of the Vytal Festival!**_

 _ **You have gained 500,000 exp**_

 _ **You have defeated Team COMT!**_

 _ **You have gained 750,000 exp**_

 _ **Level Up!**_ _ **Level Up! Level Up! Level Up! Level Up! Level Up! Level Up! Level Up! Level Up! Level Up! Level Up! Level Up! Level Up! Level Up! Level Up! Level Up! Level Up! Level Up! Level Up! Level Up! Level Up!**_

 _ **You are now level 118**_

 _ **You efforts have seen you rise in rank to Master Dragoneer/Dragonslayer Captain**_

 _ **New skills have been unlocked**_

 _ **A new Instant Dungeon has been added**_

Cobalt visibly jumped as they appeared

"Aurum! Your shitty system's lagging out again! I just got level ups from yesterday's fighting as well as today's!" Cobalt shouted

Aurum took that opportunity to send an e-mail on Cobalt's phone

"We've been upgrading some hardware on our end, so you were disconnected for a few days and saving on a local server. We apologise for the inconvenience, and had the popcorn ready for when the penny dropped" Cobalt read aloud.

There was a tense pause

"Well, at least I didn't bluescreen for several days." Cobalt said

"You're not angry?" Velvet asked

"1: when did you get here? 2: It's annoying, but I've seen what IT and customer service like this is like. They're having an equally bad day." Cobalt said

"I was here to serve Lisica her just deserts... once she woke you up" Velvet said

"Ah, okay. Don't just yet, I need her ready and able to work tomorrow. Secondly, I have a LOT of management stuff to do, and something new to check out." Cobalt said

"Come again?"

"One of my jobs just levelled up... and with that comes new skills." Cobalt said "and, if I'm reading this one right, this one's a doozy."

"alright..."

I stepped into the ID and felt my feet touch ashen ground. I studied my surroundings and saw that I stood atop an ash-laden mesa near an colossal active volcano.

It was an insane risk, coming here. One that might see everything I worked hard for come to ruin or have to go on without me.

Not because I might die, mind you, but I was bound to complete this ritual, though for only two reasons: One, I was obligated as a Dragon Knight and freshly minted "Master Dragoneer"… and two, bragging rights... and I loved to show off, just to see people react to the latest pile of steaming bullshit I'd heaped on them.

I planted Immortal Phoenix into the ash beside me and took a deep breath, both to steady myself, and to do what came next

"As is the tradition and as written in the ancient accords, I beckon you forth. I challenge thee in a test for dominance!" I bellowed across the empty, ash-strewn plains.

This part of this world was practically dead, save for one animal that lived in extreme locations that no others could or would inhabit.

I heard a loud thudding noise, slow and quiet, but picking up tempo and volume as the beast drew nearer.

I pulled Immortal Phoenix from the ash as a dark shadow passed overhead, and I smiled.

In my own break from these old traditions, I spoke once more

"Show me your rage; Show me your might; and in return, I will show you mine" I said as the dark shadow pitched backwards 270 degrees and landed after a straight vertical descent, blowing ash everywhere.

* * *

 **Alright, now a simple game for those of you paying attention: Can you guess what alignment Cobalt is on a D &D alignment chart. I want to hear your opinions and the reasoning behind them.**

 **Turns out there's gonna be a double feature: chapter 46 got done freakin' last night, and I get to spoil you to a 4K word chapter!**


	47. Levelling up

The ash blowing over my face clogged my nose and scratched at my throat and eyes, and blinded me for several seconds.

Number 46 or so on my list of pet peeves: Aura does not block aerosolized irritants like dust, ash, harsh wind and tear gas, and any spells I could learn that do also slowly suffocate me, making me wear that goofy and uncomfortable mask all the time. Of course, good Power Armour is typically hermetically sealed and counts as a level 5 hazmat suit, without looking like zombie fodder... so that's good, I guess

But I digress. Wiping the dust and ash from my eyes, I got my first good look at my opponent.

The head was smooth and led seamlessly to the neck, with diminutive nostrils, no visible eyes and a big mouth lined with sharp-looking teeth... I doubted it had any trouble seeing or smelling me, though. the body was lithe, agile, and clearly built favouring speed and agility over strength or durability, without completely dedicating itself to the practice like a cheetah and was built more akin to a mountain lion... heh 'like a puma'.

The creature was black as midnight and raised its wings... which looked like giant arms with bat-like finger-membranes tacked on to form a pair of wing/hand hybrids

This prompted a quick which revealed it had six claws on each foot, and that there were two fingers in the membrane and four 'ripclaws' on the extremely well-muscled wing-hands, which left both my inner biologist and OCD sufferer very happy that my fantasy monster paid heed to nature in the little details, even in an alien biology.

It was a dragon, for sure, though it looked like it took some inspiration from Alien with the faceless design.

The creature reared up and slammed down, bellowing out an ear-splitting roar that forced my hands over my ears to protect my hearing, before it began to emit a fine 'dander' in a great smoke-like cloud that blocked the light coming through, dimming the arena slightly. Its wing-arms now rested in front of the creature as it hunched forward, ready to attack, the wing membranes vibrating menacingly, to give it the look of having a ragged cloak.

(Battle Theme Music: Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate; Gore Magala theme)

The dragon charged at me, covering the ground rapidly, to which my response was to charge up Mana Muscles, switch my halberd to my off hand, and punch the dragon's head in a giant downwards haymaker, sending the creature to a stop as its body vaulted over me with the aid of an uppercut to the point where its neck met its shoulders.

This sent the dragon sailing over the edge of the mesa, where it recovered and began to fly around the arena.

One of the benefits of this being a test of my skills as a Dragon Knight was the lack of a ceiling... though this tended to play more into the dragon's hands than the knight's.

The dragon circled around the arena before strafing me with a spray from it's breath weapon.

Naturally, I sidestepped this attack, and noted how it caused the ashes to liquefy and then bubble. Acid Breath, then... it occurred to me I had completely forgot about acid-breath and exactly how poorly-prepared I was for that... Runes or no, that acid would probably melt my armour and weapons and cost me a good deal of aura if I took a shot.

Since I figured that casting most spells would probably disqualify me, I reached for an old friend of both the Dragon Knight and Dragon Slayer.

I held out my hand and concentrated, before closing my fingers around a javelin made of lightning... but I didn't hurl it just yet. It was most effective- and most accurate- at close range.

As the Dragon came close for another strafing run, I loosed the javelin and hit the dragon square in the chest, jolting it enough to knock it out of the air. It collapsed onto the mesa with me, tumbling to the opposite side where it landed on it's feet, instantly in a defensive pose.

It quickly had to sidestep my leap, which buried the spear of my Halberd into the ground. In retaliation, it blew its acidic breath at me again, which, in turn, I had to dodge.

Of course, I had to admire its cunning when I found a wing-arm waiting to send me sailing.

But that admiration was based in only a small part of me. The rest of me flipped it the bird as I sailed over the edge of the mesa.

Now it was a very long drop all around the mesa as mesas typically are a flat-topped circle of cliffs. Seeing as I wasn't wearing a jetpack, and falling off the mesa would likely lose me the match, I had to get creative.

I had a few options, in order form most to least sensible, I could pull out a big-ass rifle or a canon and let off a round, propelling me back towards the mesa. I could use magic to create an explosive blast of aura that would do the same...

Or, I could use rune magics to cobble-together an ersatz glyph in mid-air and use that as a launching platform for a grand leap.

But that was stupid. No sane person chooses to spend a fuckload of mana when I could instead choose a bunch of mana or no mana.

Of course, I didn't earn a reputation for doing the sensible thing, now did I? I could dump point after point into wisdom, but I'd still choose the bad idea, either because it was more awesome, more fun, or sated my curiosity briefly.

Slightly panicked and high on adrenaline, I leaped like I'd never leapt before and pushed the ceiling up further than I'd ever gone with any leap ability before.

For a brief moment, I enjoyed the feeling of weightlessness that accompanied the zenith of my fall, my eyes closed, serenely smiling as I took a deep breath of the rarefied air before I span and threw my Halberd downwards in an attack that left a blue comets tail.

Then I began to fall as my off-hand fed a vial of mana potion into my arm from a hidden cache in my shoulder.

Quick bursts of aura became bursts of physical force angled to guide me towards my goal as I nose-dived earthward, following my halberd.

The impact was devastating, throwing up chips of rock that cut and punctured all over the dragon's body... unfortunately, overcharging Hi-Jump, Leap's somewhat beefier cousin whose upgrade I'd unlocked with the help of a previous promotion appears to also overwhelm the safeties that otherwise prevented fall damage... since leaping off a flying dragon onto a foe tends to inflict assloads of fall damage. As a result, I felt my aura absorb a colossal hit.

I still had some juice left in me, and I fully intended a 'with it or on it' set of victory conditions.

Since I took some time to recover from my landing, the Dragon took the initiative, pouncing on me with the intent of crushing me under its wing-hands.

I reacted, but too slow to stop the blow. I was, indeed, crushed under its palms, but had managed to get my hands up enough that I could throw the dragon over myself once again, saving myself from the full force of the blow.

I took up Immortal Phoenix and spun it around in my good hand before making a mundane jump attack, using the axe of the Halberd to inflict a crushing blow of my own with the magically blunted blade and driving the wind from the dragon's sizeable lungs.

The dragon manage to punch me with a lucky flail of its hands which bought it precious time to recover. Not much, as I soon recovered, quaffed a mana potion in preparation and did something that, once again, blurred the line between bravery and stupidity.

As the dragon rolled onto its feet I ran up and leapt onto its back, resting with my feet resting in front of the dragon's wing-arms.

He did not like that at all, and began to buck and paw at my general location in a mad attempt to get me off.

I held fast, and kept my place on its back, riding it like I was breaking a horse in... though I respected this creature more than any horse. Man and creature struggled against one another for nearly half an hour, testing the upper limits of each's endurance.

Eventually, however, the dragon gave out. It collapsed to the thoroughly trodden ground that was now almost tilled enough to grow food on, and an exhausted Cobalt tumbled out of the dragon's 'saddle', unable to support himself either.

The two lay there for what felt like a small eternity, just struggling to regain feeling in their numbed limbs.

Eventually though, I began to laugh... and the dragon gave me a look of utter bewilderment, like I'd gone mad, which, frankly, was more than likely given I just rode a Dragon until exhaustion.

"Good fight, good sir... Good fight. You- heh- you certainly pack a punch, and you've got spirit... I respect that... The aggression, the overwhelming might, I love it... that ability to push me to push myself to the limits? Priceless..." I said

The dragon regarded me strangely.

"I know, I know, I'm a strange man, how did I ever become a Dragon Knight? I'm not some sworn member of an ancient knightly order, if that's what you're wondering." I said, kicking myself back upwards, and taking a few moments to steady myself

"I'm just some dork who has to deal with greatness being thrust upon them... I mean, I'm not exactly complaining, being great is great and all, pun semi-intended, but with great power and all... so here I am, asking you, a Dragon, if you'd like to throw your lot in with me... I mean, yeah, we fought, but I reckon, given how exhausted the two of us are that no one won that contest."

The Dragon 'humm'ed in agreement.

"I'd swear you could understand me... probably can anyway, I wouldn't be completely surprised. Wrangling a creature into submission is one thing, to establish yourself as pack alpha or something... But I don't make pets of intelligent beings; no ifs, ands or buts... and I don't think you would have it any other way either... do note that doesn't mean I'll let you sit on the couch." I said, joking.

The dragon puffed a cloud of acrid black smoke in my face which stung my eyes and throat

As the coughing subsided, I had the cheek to say "phwoar... goddamn, your breath stinks. Do you not floss or something?"

The dragon growled

"okay, that was pushing my luck a bit... but still, how about it? Partners in crime?" I asked

The dragon considered me for a moment, before nodding

"I fucking knew you could understand english... eh, discount therapy session either way."

The Dragon lowered its head and I placed my hand on its forehead

"The battle is won, and now to the victor the spoils. The test is succeeded, and we two have bared their souls at each other for all to see, and now we fly together, not as two entities, but as one whole." I said

As I finished the ceremony, I felt a tugging on my soul, before a feeling of immense energy poured through my being. I saw streams of nondescript energy flowing between me and the dragon, and was frozen and unable to respond or otherwise react.

Eventually it ended. I lost my feet again in exhaustion and collapsed backwards onto my ass...

You have gained a new skill: Summon Mount

 _ **Call upon your mount of choice no matter where you are.**_

The dragon, however, seemed to have taken the brunt of it, and where my hand had been was a spiderweb of cracks in its black scales... a spiderweb that soon ran its way down its neck and form there, across its entire body.

I could see bits flaking off as the dragon took two bounds away form me and towards the mesa, before leaping upwards and spreading its wings.

With that one gesture all the black disappeared revealing resplendent gold scales... The dragon now possessed a par of horns on the front of its face, jutting forward before curving upwards and I could see its eyes underneath where its horns had been previously, and the former raggedness of its wings was now made whole, and with it seemingly hanging in the air, it looked like a big, golden star hanging in the air.

It roared again, announcing itself to the world once more, and breathing fire now.

The dragon dropped to the ground now and padded over to me.

"Well, this was unexpected" I remarked "But I really like the new look."

The dragon nudged me

"what?" I asked

The dragon lifted its head and looked at where I'd been sitting before

"what are you- oh right!" I said, slapping my forehead.

I shrugged off my tiredness and leapt to my feet before using the Dragon's forelimb to climb onto the dip between its shoulders

"Before we leave, one more thing." I said

The dragon lifted its head and looked at me, as if asking 'what?!'

"Do you have a name? A word I may know you by?" I asked

The dragon shook its head

"Then I name you Uruloki... it means Fire-Wyrm."

The dragon nodded its head

"Right... now then, I suppose its time for me to learn to fly." I said

The dragon didn't need any encouragement, and leapt straight up, spinning as it did so and forming a bullet-shape with its wings, before doing the star thing and falling backwards.

I felt my stomach climb a few rungs on the ladder to my mouth before Uruloki levelled out and took off at insane speed.

Congratulations; You have tamed a dragon, and forged an unbreakable bond.

* * *

I returned sometime later with my hair blasted back like I'd just escaped a wind tunnel.

"Cobalt? Where have you been?" Velvet asked

"Ah... I... did something... decidedly awesome" I replied

"You're not going to explain?"

"So... I'm just going to say it: I duelled a dragon for the rights to summon and ride it, and have just returned from our inaugural flight." I said "Turns out being a Dragon Knight means actually having to ride a dragon, who would've guessed? "

"That explains your hair" Velvet said

I laughed and said "Alright, now then... I need to sit down and spend a crapload of stat points, since I've been saving for a while... there's nearly two hundred and fifty here. Not even kidding..."

The first thing I did was increase my intelligence again. I was enjoying the little boosts it gave to my xp gains, helping some skills develop faster... but like it or not, I was slowly becoming more mage-like and I was looking at some serious mana issues if I didn't start pumping Int up, given the amount of buffs I needed to keep constantly activated in a fight. Another fifty points was more than welcome

Wisdom was next... though I often chose to ignore the 'smart' or 'wise' option, the natural MP regen would reduce my reliance on MP potions and decrease the negative effects they had on my mana pool, which was also tanking shots for me, another thirty points took me to one hundred.

Strength was fifty five, and I liked even numbers, so I rounded it out to sixty, leaving one hundred and sixty points out of two hundred and fourty five. I was saving for one-fifty, but jumping so many levels meant I overshot my target like crazy

Since I was starting to run into aura-ignoring effects, I pumped fifty into Vitality, boosting that to one-hundred as well. That left me with one-hundred and ten points and a big question of how to spend it... in the end, I decided that having my main stats, Dex and Int only slightly ahead of the pack was going to bother me, and dumped an extra 50 into both, and put my customary last few points into Luck.

With all of that set, I braced for the gigantic slew of messages that would appear

 _ **For raising your Intelligence to 150 you have gained the following skills: Mathematician's answer, Multitask master, Quick Soul, Hyper soul, Mana Reactor**_

 _ **For raising your Wisdom to 100 you have gained the following skills: (100 INT) Unified Mind, Soul of the World**_

 _ **For raising your Vitality to 100 you have gained the following skills: Body of Steel, Survivor, Vigour [1]**_

 _ **For raising your Dexterity to 200 you have gained the following skills: Mark, Engineered Luck, Rebuke**_

 _ **For raising your Intelligence to 200 you have gained the following skills: Soul's embrace, Magecraft, Maximum Mana**_

 _ **Maths is the purest form of science and can be used to express nearly anything and everything, barring the reality breaking powers of magic. The Mathematician's answer hands the user's brain the cheat-manual for this hidden language of everything to reduce costs and improve efficencies: all values are adjusted by 10%**_

 _ **Multiasking is the art of doing several things at once, and your mastery of such is so great that you may have to fend off accusations of multiple personalities. Your parallel processing capacity for complex tasks like spellcasting can give a supercomputer a run for its money... allows the user to cast several spells simultaneously**_

 _ **Quick soul and Hyper soul are twin abilities, allowing one to ignore up to six seconds of charge time, whilst hyper soul allows one to overcharge a spell to improve its effects**_

 _ **Your soul can output some serious wattage, Your mana pool has been buffed by a further 40% thanks to Mana Reactor**_

 _ **With your amazing intelligence and wisdom, you have improved your brain to such a degree that you have developed psychic potential... for now, it will remain a just potential, but may be nursed into powers with intense study and meditation**_

 _ **Soul of the World builds on the building blocks of Feng Shui, and allows one to tune themselves to the frequency of the world around them and listen to the song of Gaia. You may now meditate in any natural location to commune with Mother Nature.**_

 _ **Every now and then a man continues to draw breath long after he should have died... whether shot in the head, struck by lightning, or the sole survivor of an extraordinary accident, this skill represents their uncanny ability to give the terminator a run for his money, and grants a chance to ignore lethal damage**_

 _ **Body of Steel, whilst not literal, reinforces the body to such a degree that bullets will struggle to find purchase in your rock-solid abs.**_

 _ **You make a normal human look like they're made of spun glass and fabergé eggs with your new 20% healthpool bonus, courtesy of your newfound Vigour**_

 _ **The sign of a truly skilled huntsman is the ability to find their opponent's weakness and put a projectile in it. Mark allows the individual to scan an opponent and find their weakpoint, improving damage and massively boosting crit chance.**_

 _ **Who needs to be lucky when you've got skill? Not you: your dexterity plays into Luck checks, though at a severe disadvantage.**_

 _ **Don't take your abuse lying down, rebuke gives bonuses to hit and damage on any enemy that has attacked you, regardless of if they hit successfully hit you.**_

 _ **You share your every thought and emotion with two other beings on a daily basis, working together to great effect. By embracing another's soul and forging a very intimate contact, you can extend this blessing to another person temporarily, though the flood of information may overwhelm the simple-minded.**_

 _ **Magecraft grants an insight and understanding into magical theory, allowing you to better manipluate magical energies and devise new spells.**_

 _ **Maximum Mana is the biggest and baddest MP pool enhancement, and adds an extra 50% to your mana pool, on top of all previous bonuses.**_

Holy... smoking... jesus... if I was a threat to Cinder's plans before, I might be looking at Salem pretty dang soon... assuming she survived the 'unseasonal surprise birthday gift'

I needed to rest though: My fight was rigged for early in the morning tomorrow... and I had the absolutely most perfect routine planned out... and these skills would make it an easy endeavour.

I began to laugh, a chuckle at first but rising into a raucous laughter.

Unknown to me, Jaune, who had been about to visit, promptly turned around when he heard the sounds of madness echoing from Seventh Heaven.


	48. Round three

"Hey, Penny"

"What is it Cobalt?" Penny asked

"I wanted to wish you good luck with the finals... and also give you this" I said, slipping her a necklace just like all the others I'd given out

"What is it?"

"A very powerful charm necklace I made to keep those wearing it safe from harm." I explained, handing Penny my last necklace

"Wow, thanks Cobalt... I don't get a lot of gifts, considering my father" Penny said

"What they don't know wont hurt them... just keep it safe and keep it secret, and so long as they never know, they can't confiscate it... and, uh, I should warn you that you need to be wearing it to receive the full benefits." I said

"I understand completely, friend Cobalt" Penny said

"I'm glad you do... try your best, and remember that no matter what happens, I'll be watching and ready to celebrate no matter the outcome. Good luck, have fun" I said

"You too friend Cobalt" Penny replied

"That means a lot to me Penny, thanks." I replied.

* * *

I stared down at Mercury from across the arena as it slowly hovered into the air.

"Well, I'll be. Mercury Black, the boy in his father's shadow." I taunted, going right for the balls.

"Oh, you'll pay for that" Mercury said

I cracked my neck, but didn't assume a ready posture "Bring it on, mecha-legs, I've been saving the entire bag of tricks for you"

"wait, what?" Mercury asked

I stood across from Mercury at the arena, relaxed, but straight posture, legs spread slightly, not quite shoulder-wide and arms behind my back, and sent the signal to Lisica to start the fuckery as I removed my glasses and closed my eyes.

A white-bordered black box appeared, floating in the air beside me... one that filled with text alongside standard-issue rpg clicks in a middle-low tone

The sign read 'It's a beautiful day today...'

Another one appeared on the other side of me

'The sun is shining... the birds are singing...'

A third one, between the two but lower so my face could still be seen

'on days like today... kids like you should be...'

There was two bright flashes that dazzled everyone's eyes, but those still looking could see my face, shadowed as if illuminated form one side and eyes like two burning coals, and the text '...burning in hell' flash across their vision.

 **(Battle theme begins: Undertale – Megalovania [Dual mix])**

Parts of the arena were converted via illusions, courtesy of my familiar. Pillars the colour of the setting sun now stood where they hadn't before, and several parts of the arena now looked like they were illuminated with brilliant golden light.

I may not have actually played the game, but goddamn if the internet didn't go ga-ga for it and this fight, and I wanted to really put the fear of me in Mercury.

I raised my hand and several spinning balls of Blue light soon began spiraling up from the edge of the arena in big concentric circles until a great sphere of magic had been achieved, each orb roughly a meter from each other in a big, spherical, triangular grid. Multitasking and Quick Soul hard at work.

The mathematicians answer told me how many there were, but I didn't care.

"You're about to have a bad time" I said

all hell broke loose as, at my discretion, orbs suddenly coalesced into arrows of crystalline soul that shattered on impact, spraying a small area around them in razor-sharp shards of crystal.

Mercury dodged like crazy, performing every trick in the book and then some to play keep away from me and my magic... for the most part he was successful in the 'singles round', and I even had to dodge a few well-timed foot-blasts

When the sphere was about half-depleted, I broke the formation and had the orbs all form their darts and follow each other like a school of the world's most ridiculously lethal fish.

Mercury used the reprieve to attack, but had to abort and dive out the way as I directed the 'school' at him. I began the 'direct' the 'school' with dance-like, fluid motions... like a Waterbender directing tendrils of water

Once I got bored of that I had the soul arrows begin to circle over the arena and began to use flash-step to move around the perimeter of the arena and fire off crystalline spears from locations determined at random on a whim of fancy, sticking around only long enough to fire off a potshot as crystal soul-arrows began to rain down from the sky, but not shatter, creating feet hazards Mercury could all but ignore with his special feet.

When all the arrows had been embedded I leaped over the arena and fired a bolt of aura at them... just a simple energy bolt, which caused the whole lot to explode sending fragments everywhere. Mercury's aura took a hammering with this one.

I landed, low on mana and quickly chugged a mana potion.

As I didn't have any ongoing hazards around me, and he was desperate to get a hit in, Mercury attacked, only to find his running roundhouse kick had been countered.

I then countered by delivering a double-legged kick to the small of his back before finishing my potion.

I could see the fear in Mercury's eyes when he saw my aura begin to fill back up.

"Hells kitchen just got a new order: one Asshole hindquarter, medium rare and served with a side of kicking boot" I joked as my hand glowed

I pulled at the glowing part of my hand, and showed everyone that the aura-based substance coating it was very elastic "The customer doesn't want it bruised, however"

I shot a spray of this soul-rubber at Mercury, who did me a favour and attempted to roll away allowing me to coat his back before I stomped on the ground, creating a shockwave that sent him skyward: a trick Yang had showed me.

I leaped straight at him and gave him the hardest punch I could muster without a skill. Mercury bounced off my fist and shot at the forcefield at the edge of the arena, before bouncing off, straight back to me

I flip-kicked him skywards where he bounced off the other forcefield and straight into my knees, which carried me downwards and we both landed, me on my arse, Mercury with his back on my knees.

Mercury screamed in pain, which made me wince in sympathy. He was not high enough on the shitlist to warrant 'slow and painful'… yet.

"Cobalt Jinn has defeated Mercury Black..." Port said

I rolled Mercury off me and checked his vitals

"okay, let's see... oh come on!" I shouted

"I... I can't feel my legs!" Mercury shouted in fear

"Ah fuck" I said before rolling Mercury onto his stomach

"What? What are you doing you psycho?" Mercury demanded

"I'm a doctor, shit-for-brains, I'm going to see if I can reattach your spinal chord with either magic or tech." I informed him, bluntly.

"A doctor?" Mercury asked

"Well, who do you think installed my arm?" I shouted "Certainly not Vale's finest and brightest. No offense to them, but I wouldn't trust them with a nerve injector."

I removed an auto-syringe from my inventory and shot the red fluid within into Mercury's back

Mercury protested and squirmed loud and hard.

"Sit still you fucking drongo, or it'll heal crooked and I'll have to re-break your back if I want to fix you" I threatened

"It hurts!" Mercury said

"Take a teaspoon of concrete and harden the fuck up, princess, It's literally thirty seconds of sitting still and biting your fucking tongue." I informed him

"Your bedside manner is... terrible" one of the approaching MD's informed me

"Trust me when I say I can tell the little shit's faking. I import the remedy, and if it has any side effects or allergic reactions, we've never found out as it cures those as they happen. He's lightheaded at best."

"I'm sure this counts as malpractice." The other one said

"Well he can sue me for hurting his feelings after he makes a miraculous recovery from an otherwise incurable condition without the aid of robotics or an entire major hospital." I said "Or he can man up and stop being a little bitch about light-headedness and a tingle, before I give him something to really complain about."

* * *

I laughed as I watched the news feed. People were speculating left right and centre about the fight, because holy shit it was fucking amazing, and then I pulled off a minor miracle as Mercury was shown walking again.

I'm sure Cinder was tearing her hair out right now...

I laughed again as the image of a Cinder who had torn out large chunks of her hair and was now nearly bald popped into my mind.

"What the shit, Cobalt?!" Yang asked as she slammed open my dorm room door

"What?" I asked, inncocently

"Could you warn us next time you stir up the media like that? I got harassed by three reporters on my way here!" Yang said

I laughed my arse off again, wiped the tears from my eyes, waited for the giggles to die down and turned to face Yang "I'm sorry- heh heh heh... Sorry, I shouldn't laugh. I'll keep you appraised the next time I do something stupid, big, stupidly big or incredibly stupid."

"You'd better." Yang said "What are you doing anyway?"

"Me? Cleaning my guns, oiling my blades, pressing rounds into new mags, y'know, the stuff I do to unwind after a long day"

"You seemed to tackle Mercury with ease."

"It's not that, I've just completed another inspection of that big surprise again, and the stress is killing me."

"What are you working on anyway?" Yang asked "You've teased it and teased it, but you haven't shown us anything."

"It's not that I don't trust you, I'd readily put my life in your hands; but I don't want so much as a peep of this reaching anyone... especially with the media so close. The Big reveal is today, and I'm about to make a lot of decisions that have a better-than-good chance of making you and the other teams hate me... I've been wanting to put that off for obvious reasons" I admitted

"Wait, what?"

I got a message on my earpiece and I placed my scroll on a nearby desk. It was happening, this was it.

"The wheels of fate and destiny are turning, Yang, and even now agents move behind the scenes. The unthinkable will happen, and... I've been preparing for this day for months now. This will not be the fights you're used to, or the black and white morality of fighting the Grimm... This will be war, with all its glory and all its horror, and I plan to create an earth-shattering impact on all Remnant, then take the reigns and cast a new destiny from the ruins of the old."

"Pyrrha and Penny?" Yang asked

"The games have been rigged, Yang. Subject: The Red Queen is about to move publicly for the first time, she will use the coming disaster to sway the public opinion against powerful men like Ozpin and Ironwood... The players have been making their plays, and Ozzy is about to find himself outplayed."

"We've got to stop the fight!" Yang said

"No, don't. This is it. If I go public with the small mountain of evidence right here and now, no one will give a shit beyond alarmists and I'll be silenced before it makes it to the evening news, because they filter it heavily, because causing a widespread panic will draw an unprecedented horde of grimm. If, however, I interrupt the bitch and dox her, she's suddenly up shit creek without a paddle." I explained

"But then one of our friends will get hurt!" Yang protested

"Penny dies." I said, bluntly

Yang looked at me, aghast

"I will never forgive myself for this if this doesn't pan out... let me put it to you this way, if Penny survives I get bonus XP... there's a new quest to ensure she survives... if Penny doesn't, I'm... I've been thinking, and I've reached the conclusion that that would be a betrayal I cannot abide."

"You're going to let her die!" Yang said

"And if I can't bring her back afterwards, I'm ready to off myself!" I snapped back

Yang stopped "You- why?"

"Because sacrificing a friend, no matter how important the cause, flyins in the face of everythign I believe in and hold dear... it forms the crux of a... _heinous_ betrayal... I would kill the sort of scum who do this sort of thing... and I am not exempt from my own rules... it's a betrayal of all of you, a defilement of your trust, and the only way I can even begin to conscience this act is by training to cheat death and bring Penny back..." I said

"Cobalt you don't need to do that-"

"And tell everyone what? I sat there and watched for months and months, waiting for Penny to die? That's sick... twisted... and I refuse to sink to that level and stay there... so I'm looking at either cheating death or embracing it myself"

"You realise what you're saying, ri-"

"Of course I fucking do! No. I don't say shit for no reason. Maybe this is an overreaction, but this issue is one I will not budge on... for a lot of reasons."

"O-Okay... you mentioned cheating death... how?"

"Those 'good luck charms' as you may have guessed, are not simple luck boosters." I said "I'll fully explain everything when I actually perform the procedure... but you remember how Lisica was made, right?"

"you split off a chunk of your soul and..." Yang said before realising where this was going.

"Bingo."

I looked back just in time to watch Pyrrha make her debut as the world's worst street magician by turning a penny into four quarters.

I winced as my brain conjured up that sick joke. Dobby would have to punish himself for that one... preferably with a rusty fork, two lemons and a pinch of salt.

"Yang... I need you to find your locker, hide anything of value to yourself and your friends and prepare for the fight of your life... and whatever you do, don't charge the psycho with the Katana unless you want to end up like me" I warned her

"what's that supposed to mean?" Yang asked

"you'll know when the time comes... now, for me, it's showtime" I said before teleporting.

* * *

 **That's Right folks: Double-Upload time, since I got REALLY ahead of myself... because no one would play games with me on the weekend.**

 **We now have the reserve of chapters in place. no more Monday/Tuesday rushes to get a chapter finished now!**

 **Coming up next on GfG: "IT'S HAPPENING!"**


	49. It begins

Cinder was delivering her speech and thoroughly traumatizing Pyrrha. What she didn't realize was that the symbol on the screen had been replaced.

Instead of the Castle logo, there was a police voiceprint matchup system in place.

It spun through a few bad matches first, for thoroughness' sake, before settling on a confirmed match, and then brought up Cinder Falls bio, before switching to an excerpt from CCT tower footage which had shown Cinder breaking in whilst masked, and caught the exact moment she'd looked close to a camera.

The footage isolated that image of the perp's face and then painted skin tones over the mask, displaying that it was an 84% match, and a 97% match for the pattern on the inside of her ear, which, like a fingerprint was unique to everyone.

Then it swapped to more shaky footage showing her walking beside several uniformed members of the White Fang that I'd had the pleasure of recording as I'd had reconnaissance drones marking White Fang hideouts, safe houses and bases based on testimony Tukson had given, confirmed inadvertently by Blake, who had shown how members of the Fang found each other.

This footage then repeated. Cinder was oblivious until I teleported in as the second loop ended.

"Cinder... I'm sorry to interrupt darling, but you might wanna see what's on International TV right now" I said

"what?! HOW?!" Cinder demanded

I had the video feed cut to a camera shot of me "You thought you'd had Castle put on the CCT that night I didn't stop you." I said, producing a familiar horned, androgynous, silver mask and switching to my musical, lilting accent

"You" Cinder accused

"Me" I said "I had my own AI masquerading as Castle, that I installed when the CCT went down. He fed you info, and informed me on your moves... like your two cronies, who you had attempt to assassinate a Bookstore owner in downtown Vale. Tsk, tsk Cinder, now he got away and you wouldn't believe the things he's told the authorities, and the things I've learned from them since they weren't securing their CCT transmissions... anyone with an antenna might accidentally pick up on them whilst listening in for suspicious radio chatter."

"Then you're-"

"Save it, bitch. Let's not even mention the bullheads loaded with angry White Fang and grimm approaching Vale. I'd say my prayers and hope you reach your objectives before I find you, because when I do, you will not be long for this world."

"Cobalt, what the HELL are you doing?!" Oobleck demanded

"Simple... saving everyone like a big. Damn. Hero." I replied, before bending down and plucking Penny's 'charm' from her body

"Even you, little one... I vow to cut your strings and set you free or die trying." I whispered to the orb, which pulsated slightly in response. Penny was scared, hurt and confused, which told me she was indeed in there.

Which was awesome because I didn't purchase fourteen crystallized tears of a dying goddess and nearly empty Outer Heaven's treasury, nor gild said gemstones, for nothing.

I straightened up and adopted my persona for my greatest act and performance yet.

"System, Record message: This is a formal notice to all members of the White Fang, Any militant 'activists' found within Vale borders after approximately... now will be charged with one account of Terrorism and one account of attempted Mass genocide. The punishment for the former is life imprisonment... the punishment for the latter is execution by firing squad, to be carried out as soon as humanly possible. Discard your weapons and surrender, and you may be spared. Attempt to harm civilians and non-combatants, and you will be shot. This is not a joke, turn back now and rethink whatever decisions led you to committing mass murder. To the rest of you listening, The White Fang is hereby a terrorist organization, and should prepare for dismantlement... forcibly if needs be. Anyone not wishing to get caught up in violent reprisals for acts of hatred are are advised to surrender as soon as possible and enter the witness protection program. Message repeats."

Pyrrha stared at me, aghast. The crowds stared at me, aghast. I stared daggers at everyone.

"You..." Pyrrha said, but trailed off, unable to form the words properly.

"Me." I said

"You would... do this?" Pyrrha asked

"the White Fang are seeking to destroy the kingdoms... and they'll start by turning Vale into Menagerie. Whilst I appreciate the irony, that means a LOT of people die at the hands of the White fang and the Grimm... worse, they've been subverted by a woman who has, from what I can tell, allied herself with the grimm somehow, if that soul-stealing grimm bug-glove, and the fact there is literally hundreds of grimm arriving in bullheads thing is anything to go by."

Pyrrha stood back from me, pale as a sheet

A Nevermore arrived and landed on the forcefield above Amity Colosseum

I snapped my fingers and six Kitsune appeared around me, one of which was Lisica

"And with this, we engage the response force" I said as runes began to form and run across the ground, forming large concentric circles that ran across the arena.

"what are you doing?" Pyrrha asked

"Kitsune are well known for their trickery... but a minor power of theirs on the freaking laundry list of magical abilities they have is creating pocket realms to store large objects in impossibly small areas... like your handy haversack... today, we hope to achieve the opposite, and bring something into realspace from parallel space... that something is Outer Heaven." I explained "The kits and I intend to use a lot of magic to cut a small hole and essentially turn the pocket of reality it resides in inside out, forcibly ejecting everything... including My big surprise, codenamed Project: Templar... stand back"

The Kits and I went through practised motions, synchronizing our inputs and outputs.

I began casting the spell, and felt power well up within me, before raising my hands skywards and letting loose a bolt of coruscating energy skywards.

I felt the energies find what they were looking for, and split the envelope of folded space the station resided in and forcing the full contents into realspace.

I didn't stop and quickly recovered. I looked skywards where I noted, idly, that the nevermore had been gibbed by the backlash, but the forcefield had been lowered right as the griffons were set to begin circling. They hadn't arrived yet, but they would

I pressed the transmit button on my earpiece and gave my orders

"Command, this is Regent. Project Templar is go and all callsigns are cleared hot, I repeat, Project Templar is go, Rules of engagement are to use lethal force if fired upon and in defense of civilians; I don't want any overzealous murder here. Be on the lookout for Blackbird, and direct her to the evac zones if you see her. Regent out."

"Roger that, see you in five mikes, over."

"Copy that, see you soon. Good hunting"

"Project Templar?" Pyrrha asked

"My big surprise: a grand army done in my over-the-top style... squads are designed to tarpit hunters and take on large Grimm on their lonesome, whilst coming in far, far greater numbers than hunters... A middle ground between a hunter's quality and Atlesian quantity, if you will. Whilst hunters have long stood as great heroes and fine bulwarks... Humanity's losing ground, fast. The Templar are supposed to take everything I could find to shift the balance of power back into the favour of humanity... They are Outer Heaven's Angels of Death and destruction... make a wish, the sky is being filled with shooting stars"

I paused and laughed "Pun not intended, but welcome"

Everyone looked up, to see several streaks of glowing orange shooting across the sky, right at Vale

A flock of Griffons appeared and began to look like they would attack the Colosseum, which began to cause a panic, before a series of metallic grey blurs shot past and the Griffons exploded as Air superiority fighters pulled out of their dive and blasted the offending Grimm.

"They shall be my finest warriors, these men who give of themselves to me. Like clay I shall mould them, and in the furnace of war forge them. They will be of iron will and steely muscle. In great armour shall I clad them and with the mightiest guns will they be armed. They will be untouched by plague or disease, no sickness will blight them. They will have tactics, strategies and machines so that no foe can best them in battle. They are my bulwark against the Terror. They are the Defenders of Humanity. They are my Space Marines..." I quoted

The radio and the TV signal lit up as a thousand voices called out in unison "...and they shall know no fear!"

I smiled at the awesome silliness. Big guns, big mechanical men, spouting gospel and hate whilst keeping the little people safe... I found myself wiping away a tear shed in face of the awesome.

"I would advise everyone evacuate Amity Colosseum now." I said "Hunters and students should call their rocket-propelled lockers as soon as possible, and make ready for war. The enemy is at our door and we must see to it he does not find that which we hold dear. We must see to it that they pay dearly for each life they take today. We must send a clear message that we are not the soft, weak targets we appear to be, but that we shall be as cold and as brutal as the north wind in Atlas, and we shall not fall this day, or any other day. Good luck and godspeed to all of you." I said, snapping off a crisp salute and marching for the exit.

* * *

"You!" Ironwood shouted when he saw me as he exited Amity Colosseum

The small flood of spectators parted to allow Ironwood to get to me

"What do you think you're doing?!" Ironwood demanded

"Ironwood, say what you will about my Zero tolerance policies, but right now we can both agree that we have civilians in need of defence. I happened to do what you should have done these past months, Jim. I plotted, I planned, I gathered intel and evidence, and when the time came and our common enemy made to act, I closed the jaws of my great trap, exposed her plan and revealed her identity to everyone in all four kingdoms as a common enemy of the people, something you and Ozpin failed to do... now the hunter must finish off the she-wolf before she finishes gnawing through her leg and escapes. Damage control and preventing a panic are both long out of our reach, and the best we can do now is to vanquish the foe before too many people die, and the longer you detain me here, the better the chance Cinder has of escaping, and more importantly, the more people will die, now do you want to sit here flapping your meat-flaps, or do you want to do your job as a Hunter and a Leader of men?"

Ironwood gave me the mother of all glares

"Go on. Glare all you want, I have a kingdom to save"

As I said that, a trio of thunderbirds landed on the docks. The Thunderbird dropship was based on W40K's Thunderhawk and was essentially a giant flying box with wings, big enough to hold roughly twenty Templar easily and could pull double-duty in a similar Close Air Support (CAS) role to the AC-130 gunship... albeit in strafing runs rather than a continual pylon turn around the target due to the main canon being a gigantic affair that had to be permanently mounted forwards... though, for the sake of any passengers, both roles were generally not performed at the same time.

The assault ramps collapsed and two Templar each marched down the ramps. Each was built like a brick shithouse on steroid-laced steroids, and stood at an imposing eight feet tall, and three wide, and armoured head to toe in bulky powered armour that was reminiscent of the old knights of yore, if each plate was nearly four centimetres thick. Each one carried a colossal rifle with a 1.5 inch smoothbore barrel in their hands and a long 'knife' that would count as a ridiculously wide and heavy single-edged arming sword on any lesser being on their hips.

One approached me and reported "Sir, We're ready to begin evacuation procedures"

"Not a moment too soon, things nearly got dicey there. Get them aboard the Daedalus, and keep them in the passenger compartments... but do feel free to let them onto the Observation deck."

"Yessir" The Templar said before turning to the crowd "Okay everyone listen up, the General has graciously offered you safe haven aboard the Grand Cruiser Daedalus-"

"I did no such thing"

"then it's a good thing you're not the general in question, isn't it" The Templar replied sharply

I suddenly felt a lot of unwelcome eyes on me

"Well, I built and trained these things from scratch... and, through some automated processes, created an entire legion of these things... there's roughly four thousand combat-capable fighters arriving in less than a minute" I replied

Ironwood balked at that number

"Not all of them are these guys though... I got bored after about a dozen Templar, automated the process and developed side-projects to get some decent mixed-unit tactics going... speaking of, if you see a blue stripe along the bottom of the left shoulder pad, it signifies one of the two-dozen or so I hand-built"

A loud gunshot caught everyone's attention

It didn't take long to see that a bullhead had landed and disgorged a number of grimm.

"Get into the Thunderbirds! They'll take you to safety!" I shouted as the comms lit up with strings of musical tones

I'd decided to have some fun with ensuring secure communications and had immediately turned to constructed languages from earth... I'd chosen Solresol for the ability to express it as musical tones, which, though discordant at times, would just sound like incomprehensible garbage... and like no other language on Remnant to anyone listening in on an organic giving orders

Hostiles / Colosseum was the alert, sent out by one of the templars no doubt.

Support Coming came the reply

Caution / Civilians Another alerted whoever was coming for support, likely a flyer

Confirmed

Communication was kept simple. Solresol lacked words to express certain distinctions, and the language was invented to help disabled people communicate, not work as a military lingo. The word for Pear was the word for Apple with an extra syllable tacked on thanks to how the language worked.

The Templars laid down a suppressing fire, carefully conserving shots as full-size bolt rounds were incredibly bulky and hard to keep large supplies of... of course, suppressive fire looked somewhat different when each round was nearly the size of a launcher grenade... once a bullet hits .50 calibre or above, there's no real question of if... so long as you hit them, they were dead, and people naturally want to hide from the asshat with the grenade launcher.

Still, young and foolish, the grimm were closing the distance.

Until one of the Fighter jets outside approached the open-air colosseum and mecha-shifted mid-air, landing as a large mech-walker toting twin miniguns

The Viking shouted "Ragna-rock and roll!" Before all noise was drowned out by the sound of nearly two-hundred overlapping gunshots per second. One three second sweep of high-explosive rounds was all it took to reduce the grimm to 'putty'. Gatling-style rotary-canons were serious business.

The spectacle prompted a lull in the panic as everyone processed what exactly just happened.

"Meet the Viking Air-Superiority Fighter and Ground Assault Walker, single-handedly redefining the term Close Air Support... as you might guess, being inside a mech as it mecha-shifts is dangerous, but I hear it's considered a rite of passage where these things are from... they're also space-capable"

"I have sooo many questions" A Hunter Trainee in the crowd said

"Official Q&A will take place in the big press release aboard Outer Heaven, where I will explain all I can... until then, I would look to either ensuring your safety or joining your comrades-in-arms down below" I said, before turning and walking towards the edge

"Where are you going?!" Ironwood asked

"I'm extracting a VIP: I courted a possible defector in the enemy ranks, someone with a bunch of pull in the right place at the right time... Don't worry, sir, Project Templar will keep Vale safe"

 **(Theme Music begin: Sabaton – Winged Hussars)**

I stopped and stood several paces back from the edge of Amity Colosseum "After all, this will be the day we waited for."

And with that one-liner, I took a running start, jumped, spread my arms, shouted a loud eagle's cry and took a leap of faith

* * *

Ruby's eyes went wide and she couldn't help herself shouting "Cobalt!". She'd seen him fall from greater heights, and she knew Cobalt wouldn't do that without a plan, but still, seeing him throw himself off the edge like that was disconcerting.

From the sounds of it, several others were also shocked and dismayed

A golden blur flashed past the edge of the arena, interrupting that particular train of thought

Not a moment later, Cobalt reappeared riding on the back of a golden dragon, who seemingly hung on invisible strings, announcing itself to the world with a roar and a beacon of brilliant fire, its wings spread out to resemble a six-pointed star

Ruby- and everyone else watching- were shocked and amazed by the sight.

Then the dragon fell backwards, turning the manoeuvre into a back flip before taking off at incredibly high speeds over the city, accompanied by the occasional flash of blue as Cobalt defended himself and his dragon from the Grimm.

Ironwood soon collected himself and began to prepare a transport to take him to his Dreadnaught, and the Thunderbirds began to leave, taking civilians, and hunter trainees either concerned for their well-being or unwilling to fight to wherever it was that Cobalt had set aside for them, to be greeted by large, air-superiority fighter escorts that took them in a giant upward spiral above the clouds and out of sight.

Ruby decided to follow Cobalt and demand answers from him, and, craftily co-opted her rocket-powered locker to take her there.

The hunters and huntresses amongst the crowds who hadn't decided to keep the civilians safe against whatever Cobalt had cooked up in the clouds quickly jumped on the regular transports to Beacon academy

Ravaora heard the sirens, saw the unfamiliar flying machines, and looked to the Kids. She'd have to find somewhere safe and soon.

Lisica, as usual, moved whilst everyone was distracted with Cobalt's theatrics. She had her part to play in all of this as well.

Magnus merely prepared himself for the fight and feast of a lifetime... If Cobalt was calling him to action, Grimm were involved, and if Grimm were involved, the two were one and the same to him.

Ozpin and Goodwitch were scrambling to protect Autumn.

The many warriors of Project Templar were preparing to perform the function they had been made for, their Drop Pods landing wherever there was space to support them as Thunderbirds equipped with anti-grav 'skyhooks' dropped units too large to fit into the drop pods where they were needed

Lieutenant Talos took a deep breath and calmly hit the button on his transport. The General had called all callsigns to duty, and he would perform his duty and his mission to the highest standard. The General himself had trained him for this day, and he would not disappoint now.

* * *

 **Whew lad, four chapters in two weeks? It's more likely than you think: Yesterday was Tuesday for me.**

 **Now then, I might see if I can cover the invasion on a case-by-case basis, and see if I can capture the chaos of what the street-level of Vale is like right now.**

 **Don't tell me y'all didn't see this coming either. I've specifically mentioned a legion of W40K inspired autonomous automatons... not directly, but that drop on the Raptor hive wasn't a fluke or one-time thing either.**

 **That said, this is going to be a big tone-shift for GfG, one I'm not sure everyone will like... maybe once things calm down, and Cobalt settles in for the long grind reclaiming land for the kingdoms things might get a bit more lighthearted.**

 **Talos is probably my least-hinted at reveal... but all shall make sense in time... also, I plan to explain where Ravaora has been all this time.**

 **Either way, I hope this chapter finds you well, and isn't as bad as I hope it's not... does that sentence make sense? It does now.**

 **Also: Shoutout to the guest who correctly guessed that Uruloki is a Gore/Shagaru Magala from Monster Hunter 4... albeit, I have swapped the frenzy virus attacks for Acid/Fire breath, as no sane man lets a creature designed to end the world out of whatever pit or hole he found it in.  
Why Acid and fire? Well I happened to have D&D scheduled the night I wrote that out and figured out that Black dragons have acid breath and Gold dragons have fire breath... which was nice.  
Why switch immediately to the Shagaru? Because I A, had no time to bring it about over tiem as a powerup; and B, because beating the everloving crap out of a Gore Magala is what causes the shift into the mature Shagaru Magala, like bushfires activating banksia (a native Australian plant) seed pods. **


	50. The Plan unfolds

Uruloki swerved out of the path of a griffon and blasted it with fire in the same mid-air pirouette, before diving under another as I fired off a quick burst of magic at the creature, shredding its chest and dropping it out the sky.

Uruloki pulled upwards, and I casually tossed a plasma grenade over my shoulder and into the mouth of the Nevermore hounding our tail as my mount rammed another, knocking both out of the sky.

A pair of explosions claimed several encroaching Grimm Uruloki realigned himself at the Atlesian Dreadnaught, and a Viking zipped past, buffeting us with his jetstream but also keeping the Grimm off our back.

We were close, oh so close.

We just had to get past one last nevermore... and this one was the giant variety, similar to the one RWBY fought.

The bird flapped its wings and sent a hailstorm of feathers at us. Uruloki dodged like a South Korean Otaku in a bullet-hell as I attempted to clear a safe path through the storm by pre-emptively shooting down as many feathers as I could.

We quickly broke through the cloud of projectiles and I fired off a half-dozen Crystal Soul Spears which arced out and blasted the Giant Nevermore

The Giant Nevermore immediately flew to gain distance before strafing us with more feathers. The pattern was different than before and Uruloki and I once again began to use every evasive manoeuvre to get through the cloud unscathed.

the process repeated twice more, where we'd weather the attacks by finding the apttern and finding the safe path through the projectiles (mathematician's answer was a godsend in that regard) and blasting it with one of my most powerful magical attacks, before the Nevermore would shift the goalposts slightly, more battered and bruised, firing more feathers faster, before- like a classic boss of the games of our childhood- it succumbed to the rule of threes and gave a last, gurgled warble and fell from the skies, already disintegrating into black smoke.

As I landed with a heavy thud, I had few doubts that everyone on the dreadnaught was either dead or incapacitated with all the time I wasted. Neo and Roman probably wouldn't bat an eyelash about that... or the thousands dying below. They'd mastered the 'them or me' argument.

* * *

Roman found himself nearly thrown off his feet as the Dreadnaught shook under a colossal impact.

"What the bloody hell was that?!" Roman demanded, angry at being wrenched from staring in morbid fascination at the chaos below and the brutal dogfighting in the skies before seeing 'Blue' walking down the windshield.

The completely sheer, vertical windshield... made of armoured glass, so it couldn't have been magnetized boots

It wasn't as if he was unaffected by gravity either: his coat was hanging off to one side.

'Blue' turned and bent over, now looking the right way up and waving into the cockpit with a cheeky smile.

Roman and Neo blinked in surprise.

'blue' pointed upwards and made his way back up to the top of the dreadnaught with the same casual walk he'd appeared with.

"What the hell do they feed kids these days?" Roman wondered aloud.

* * *

Fighting- and killing- can be elevated to something of an art form... one performed by the Templar with an unsurprisingly mechanical precision.

Each one pointed and shot, a dozen guns blazing in unison. Each shot fired reaped another target as full-sized bolt rounds tore straight through any armour or tough hide and detonated inside the victim. It was a testament more to the grimm's raw numbers that the Templars hadn't rescued the kids yet

Those bastards had put a bullhead full of grimm down next to the elementary school... one they'd landed in front of and were now using parts of the drop-pod as a makeshift barricade. The fear of the students and teachers in the assembly hall was drawing more and more in.

Another Beowolf approached the barricades and was swiftly gunned down, the grimms head and shoulders exploding as the round detonated in its throat.

It experienced the sensation of having its head and shoulders explode, painting the walls red.

The open windows from the Grimm using them as entry points at least helped by letting the smokescreen that the 'rotting' grimm corpses emitted vent out.

They'd radioed for support a long time ago and were assured it was coming, once it could be deployed and travel to them.

A Giant deathstalker appeared.

Bolt rounds dented the thick plates and put small craters... but even the high-explosive adamantium-core rounds only managed to crater the incredibly tough hide.

Seeing this, the Templar's combat routines tightened their targets and shifted their targets to the joins in the carapace and anywhere black prevailed over white, quickly blasting off the creature's legs and severely damaging its claws. A plasma grenade turned its faceplate into hot slag, cooking the grimms head.

The death stalker screamed its death screams before falling silent

This death scream also drew a small horde.

The nearest grimm, a Beowolf leapt to attack with its claws before it and the entire front line of grimm was swept away by a hailstorm of bolt rounds.

A glance showed that a Harbinger spider-tank had arrived and had brought all six two-inch barrels of its special hurricane bolter to bear.

Special, because each Heavy Bolter was individually mounted to a three-foot prehensile cable, allowing it to shoot in up to seven directions at once.

Seven, because of the short-barrelled 105mm autogun serving as its main canon, which was designed to handle any heavy armour the heavy machineguns couldn't.

If you wanted heavy fire support in an urban-sized package that could pick its way over rubble and around cars, you weren't going to find a better street sweeper than a Harbinger.

* * *

 **Months Earlier – Outer heaven fabrication Labs**

"Are these guns really necessary?" Velvet asked

"You had better not be suggesting what I think you're suggesting" Cobalt defended

"Like, they're so... big" Velvet clarified

"OH!" Cobalt said "The official justification is that there are absolutely huge grimm out there, and you need a big gun to go big game hunting if you're just some schmuck with a gun and not the Hero sort of hunter."

"And the unofficial justification?" Velvet asked

"This is what happens when you let a gun-nut with a thing for sci-fi design an army" Cobalt replied, smiling in that way he did when admitting something embarrassing before appropriating a silencer "You wish your schalldämpfer was this big"

Velvet had to suppress a laugh

"The cult of Calibres, Cartridges and Cosmoline has done its job, and I am doomed to spend my days in search of more dakka and bigger booms." Cobalt added with a chuckle, halfheartedly raising his arms and declaring "All hail the Murder/k/ube, Anu cheeki breeki Iv Damké!"

Velvet just rolled her eyes at Cobalt's antics

* * *

The Thunderbird landed in the hangar of the Daedalus, one of two large ships employed as military staging points and checkpoints before someone could step forth onto Outer Heaven.

The other cruiser was apparently named the Sword of Damocles.

Amber felt the strange craft land wherever this 'Daedalus' was before one of the two Armoured Giants pressed a large red button on the wall next to the boarding ramp, before stepping out of the craft.

Since she was at the front, Amber tentatively followed after them.

The area they were in was huge, filled with dozens of Thunderbirds and Vikings, and plenty of empty slots where others would be stored when they weren't deployed.

As she stepped off the ramp, one of the Templar spoke

"Congratulations on being the first Remnan to leave their planet, Ma'am" One of the Templar said

Amber blinked at this "I'm sorry?"

The Templar merely pointed to somewhere on the other side of the thunderbird. Amber turned and looked, but it took several moments for her to figure out what she was looking at, but when she did figure it out she found herself speechless.

There was Remnant... the entire planet, with nothing but a forcefield separating her from space... actual space.

This of course, prompted several other curious Valeans to leave the shuttle to figure out what was so mindblowing. It didn't take long for those who had figured it out to explain it to the others and soon the entire transport of refugees was transfixed, staring at their homeworld.

"We currently reside in geosynchronous orbit above Remnant... which means we orbit at the same rate that Remnant turns on its axis, allowing us to stay above the same patch of land, which makes us very easy to find. We are currently positioned so that if this ship were to fall we would land off the shore of Vale." The Templar who had spoken to Amber earlier said, though few bothered to listen.

"How?"

No one knew who said it, but it summarized everyone's thoughts

Another Robot appeared, this one being a large metal ball with three eyestalks and three arms hanging off of it that spoke with an old Valean accent. "the General has access to vast resources. Welcome, I am a Mr. Handy MkIV Protocol and Steward bot, My designation is Jeeves, and I'll be handling some questions. As the General no doubt stated down below, he will be personally answering as many questions as he can once he is done fighting."

"The General? General Ironwood?"

"Atlas does not control Project Templar, which produced the warriors the General now leads into combat against the White Fang and Grimm down below. The General we refer to is the architect of the quote/unquote 'Mad fever dream' you all see before you, General Cobalt Jinn of Outer heaven. It was he who built the first of us and he who laid down the designs for this grand army." Jeeves said

"Outer Heaven?"

"The name seemed thematically appropriate when it came time For General Jinn to name the giant city in the sky he'd built. I'm afraid I have to warn you that these less-than-creative names don't end there." Jeeves explained

"An entire city of you guys?"

"Outer heaven, for the most part, remains empty, in anticipation of receiving those with nowhere left to go after this and in hopes of one day rivalling the kingdoms themselves. General Jinn wishes to assure you that you will be allowed into the City itself soon, rather than being held here on the daedalus. We merely wish to obtain some record of the people entering Outer Heaven, and have some minor paperwork to fill out to facilitate that. General Jinn would also like to mention his distaste for bureaucracy and as such has tried to keep it to the bare minimum as far as immigration and travel visas go." Jeeves replied, indicating a table bearing a number of clipboards, pens and what must've been the visas Ceesix had mentioned.

There was a brief murmur amongst the crowd as many families considered the offer.

It didn't take long for Amber to make up her mind, so she stepped forward and grabbed a clipboard. Even if her home wasn't destroyed, she didn't have much to look forward to returning to... at the very least, she wanted to see what this Jinn fellow had on offer.

"Thank you Ma'am"

One of the Templar spoke up

"Come on people, This woman here is making all the historic firsts without you!" He taunted "First Person in space, first person on a space station... are you going to sit there and let her have all the glory just because she sat in the front of the transport?"

This spurred several others into action, and their presence helped sway many in the crowd to at least look.

"You could try a subtler tactic, you know" Jeeves said

"It worked, didn't it?" The Templar replied


	51. Loose ends, bigger guns

Ruby used her weight to direct her rocket-powered locker after the dragon Cobalt was riding.

Considering it had shining gold scales and was the size of a bus, it wasn't too hard to keep an eye on it.

What was difficult was following it. Not only did the guidance system not want to listen, but Cobalt was dogfighting with the Grimm… and Ruby was running out of names for the manoeuvres she was seeing, fast.

Not to mention that concentrating on surfing what essentially boiled down to a guided missile was made all the more difficult by all the attention-grabbing blasts of magic.

There were homing rounds, giant dumb-bombs that exploded, streams of smaller rounds, and everything in between.

Ruby felt a subtle sense of awe watching Cobalt's fly.

When, the dragon engaged in a somewhat lazy spin, Ruby noticed that Cobalt wasn't sitting on the dragon's back.

He was standing. In outright defiance of the wind, the turbulence and almost laughing in the face of Newton's first law of motion.

Ruby watched as Cobalt and the dragon duelled the Nevermore and landed atop one of Atlas' Dreadnoughts. Ruby directed her locker downwards and managed to stick the landing.

"What the bloody hell?!"

Ruby's stomach froze at that voice.

She'd landed two metres from a hatch that Roman Torchwick had just tried to use to emerge from the Dreadnought.

"What are you doing here?" Both Ruby and Torchwick asked simultaneously.

"Jinx"

Cobalt emerged from the side of the Dreadnought, casually strolling up the near-vertical, smooth metal.

"What the hell's going on here?" Both Roman and Ruby asked

Cobalt sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose

"My apologies Mr. Torchwick, it would seem a close friend of mine decided to do something me-style and follow me on her rocket-powered locker."

"Me-style?" Ruby and Torchwick asked

"For Torchwicks benefit, I'm not known for my great sanity… in fact, my devotion to the rule of cool, rule of funny and plain, dumb curiosity- in a somewhat scientific sense, has earned me a reputation for unpredictable insanity… which suits me just fine. Surfing a rocket-powered locker to chase a man riding a dragon as he dogfights a small crapton of aerial grimm sounds like something I'd do… Ruby though? Not so much… she's got some crazy-awesome stuff going on, like her scythe-rifle that she uses as a means of traversal, true, but I'm the guy who you can reasonably expect to develop explosive boxing gloves, _and_ use them"

"Those were yours?!" Ruby asked

Cobalt paused and turned to Ruby

"Did… did someone- Yang didn't try to-" Cobalt asked

"If you made them, they were duds." Ruby said

"They didn't explode?" Cobalt asked

"They did… but all that happened was that Yang was covered in soot and smoke" Ruby explained

"Ah… I was really concerned when those went missing because I realized the packing on the black powder was utter shite." Cobalt said

Torchwick cleared his throat

"Oh, right, soory... You understand the terms of our agreement, Mr. Torchwick?" Cobalt asked

"Agreement?"

"Roman, here, has gracefully decided to aid me, in exchange for sanctuary on Outer Heaven… so long as he keeps to good behaviour, that deal stands."

"How's he supposed to help?"

"He's supposed to receive a copy of the Castle Intelligent Virus Cinder was going to use to hack Atlas' Robot control mainframe. She'd have turned Atlas' legions against Vale and caused a big international incident… so I decided to bribe Mr. Torchwick and convince him to doublecross her." Cobalt explained

"Well, gee, when you put it that way… and here I was thinking we were friends, Blue." Torchwick said

"Did you put my scroll in?" Cobalt asked

"Well, the tides sure turned when you pulled your little stunt. It's in" Torchwick said

Cobalt touched the side of his head for a few seconds

"Checks out. Welcome aboard Mr. Torchwick."

"Yeah, yeah. Just make with the magic." Torchwick said

"All right, alright. Sheesh, you try and put all that talent and acting skill to use..."

Cobalt produced a large magic circle with a flick of his wrist and a snap of his fingers

"Keep any extremities you intend to keep inside the magic circle at all times, and keep movement to a minimum. Mass-scale teleporting comes with a series of risks personal TP-ing dodges. Just let me lock the spell onto you guys and..."

Torchwick felt the air around him charge with an almost tangible energy, and the air fill with a hum that was always _just_ on the edge of his hearing

"Normal phenomena… if you see hoarfrost, tell me, that happens sometimes and usually means we're in for a wild ride until the spell yanks us out of the astral plane… either way, this is going to be very not-fun"

"The what?"

"Teleporting is, in essence, using and abusing the planes of existence for fun and- hold that thought: We've got four locks… commencing mass planar transport in 3..."

The hum became a whine that increased in pitch as the spell charged

"2..."

Torchwick felt the hair on his arms stand on end

"1..."

Torchwick was subjected to the singularly unpleasant sensation of being stretched into infinity as all five major senses were assaulted and offended.

Then it stopped, as abruptly as it started. The sudden normalcy being incredibly jarring after an already jarring experience.

Torchwick immediately felt his gorge rise. His stomach was having none of that shit.

"Toilet is down the hall, on the left, first door on your right." Cobalt said, indicated said hallway

there was a mad rush as Torchwick, Ruby and Neo each rushed for the bathroom

Cobalt sighed

"Charles, get the bleach… and possibly some new carpet, I suspect you'll have to add cleaning up pavement pizza to the janitorial roster." Cobalt said to his robotic butler.

"It appears that way, doesn't it? I'll get right to it, then." Charles replied, floating off to find the cleaning supplies.

"Sorry 'bout that" Cobalt added

"It's quite alright, sir. We were made to handle tasks such as these" Charles said

"Doesn't mean it's pleasant."

"Yes, I know."

* * *

Magnus landed like one of the many shooting stars landing on Vale right now.

He was hunting Grimm… something he naturally excelled at.

They struggled to kill him for the same reasons slime monsters were a credible threat: you couldn't hurt them through purely physical means, and needed fire, lasers or magic to kill both him and them. It didn't help that he was absorbing them like a Dust Sprite ate aura, which undid what little they could do, and made Grimm all but a joke, when all he had to do was touch them to kill them.

Or that he could concentrate to sense them. They couldn't fight, very few could run fast enough, and they couldn't hide.

Cobalt was billing him, perhaps rightly so, as the Grimm's one true natural predator; The Creature that naturally fed on Grimm, and his anti-grimm nuke.

And, in a twisted sense, he created a rock, paper, scissors-type effect, where humanity were the only credible threats to him, the grimm beat the humans, and he beat the grimm with ease.

Magnus paused his thoughts to transform his arm and lash out with a whip-like, barbed tentacle which tore several beowolves in half.

Little tendrils rushed out and stuck the beowolf halves to his arm. His arm essentially mulched the beowolves as they came into contact with him and fed their raw mass into his.

Within seconds, Beowolves that had sought to kill him had now fed and strengthened him instead.

Cobalt tended to call it things like 'fucking wicked' and 'insanely awesome' before he was inconsolably caught up in maniacal laughter.

That tended to cause spikes of concern and worry whenever one of the others saw him do that.

Magnus didn't pretend to understand the man who had made him... or humans in general, for that matter; it was just that his creator was especially unfathomable.

Instead, Magnus resorted to blobbing up his hands with as much biomass as he dared pump into them and slamming it onto a charging Ursa's head, crushing the creature's cranium into the cement.

Cobalt had been kind enough to show him a few techniques he'd seen in a videogame that capitalized on his shapeshifting.

Magnus's arm shifted into a large triangular lump covered in dozens of small holes that began to launch aerodynamically-designed, barbed darts of Grimm carapace out at supersonic frequencies with a combination of muscle spasms and pressurized acidic fluids.

It was a feat of bio-engineering that had Cobalt practically oozing pride.

Which was made all the worse because he could feel whenever Cobalt experienced a strong emotion… being his Id, wrapped up in slight madness, and flavoured with the usual bouts of angst, depression, anxiety and plain old stress all manifested as one big creature of darkness representing all the worst things about Cobalt tended to do that.

Magnus paused halfway through beating a beowolf to death with its own spine to ponder, not for the first time, exactly how strange it made Cobalt that he was the only 'Magnus DeSable' running around.

He finished off the Beowolf, and seeing that there were no more nearby, Magnus took off, leaping over rooftops and streets towards the next largest concentration of grimm.

* * *

 _Four more / right_

*tsk* The rifle barked with all the sound and flash of a black cat in the middle of the night.  
 _Scratch / one_

Nova racked the bolt and chambered the next shell

She was one of the gross of assassin-bots currently dotted around Vale.

Fearmongering, and attacking morale were as much viable tactics as aiming to kill your opponent.

Fighting a foe that you couldn't see, but could see and kill you with ease was beyond merely terrifying. Nova and her sisters facilitated that aspect of General Jinn's force with the odd mono-edge sword or long-rang sniper shot.

The White Fang were complete amateurs, and it didn't take long to find the lynchpins and fanatics who held the Fang together, and end their lives swiftly and suddenly. The rest tended to quickly capitulate not long after.

Nova didn't look for officers… she observed squads and identified the members that each looked up to, for guidance and assistance, and eliminated these team players. Every squad had one, and each represented a strong point so long as this man or woman still stood… and a weakpoint if they should fall suddenly.

Nova's job was to ensure the latter.

General Jinn had gone to great lengths to design her as well. The lithe figure built for speed, agility, dexterity and grace over overwhelming strength, fortitude, and solidity. Her specialized training to read people through her scope. She could probably tell what half these people were thinking before they did.

She was one of Cobalt's Black Hands: His Cloak and Dagger corp… being that they were recognizably robots, Cobalt had decided that they would bear the symbol of the black hand

*tsk*

Another notch on her rifle. Nova watched for a few more moments to make sure they surrendered before moving on to the next.

It helped that her rifle was designed to take down grimm, and was severely overpowered for this fight… not that she could complain, she liked not having to shoot twice.

* * *

Several Soldiers of the White Fang exchanged a confused glance when the words "Sic 'em, Rex" were shouted down the street.

Their many unspoken questions were answered when a large black-and-gold robotic dog appeared around the corner.

Down the side in white stenciled letters was the word "Shadowfox"

the 'Shadowfox' quickly stopped and turned, bringing a small minigun mounted on a turret on its back to bear.

With no warning or windup, one of them had gone down in a hailstorm of lasers, the only visible evidence was the bright 'bolt' of ionized gases and plasma as the laser's focus adjusted from almost point-blank out to the gun's maximum range, the only sound emitted was a loud hissing from the air as the heating gases expanded

Another soldier attempted to approach it from behind. This thing was way lighter and had thinner armour than the big guys with the inch-thick plates.

The 'Fox's tail shot a large net at the soldier, pinning him to the ground and entangling him.

Several guns were now trained on the Shadowfox. The Shadowfox didn't seem to care… ports on his hips and shoulders opened and began to spew a thick, black smoke that quickly obscured vision, whilst sprinting in a large circle around the White Fang, until it had created a ring of vision-obscuring smoke around them

Things quickly became confusing, the White Fang, started looking for any signs of the robot exiting the smoke, unloading their guns in every direction at the slightest hint of anything in a panic-induced 'deathblossom'.

It wasn't until their guns clicked empty that the Shadowfox appeared from the smoke, shoulders still belching smoke, but now its teeth, claws and the bottom edge of its tail were glowing.

The shadowfox's claws cleaved through one of them like he wasn't there, the minigun claimed another, and a third had his head split in two as the shadowfox performed an unusually acrobatic stunt for a quadruped and managed to slap him in the face with its glowing tail on its way out.

This left six of the original dozen Soldiers of the White Fang.

The survivors were scared as hell, and separated into two groups of three by the smoke.

Several soldiers furiously began to reload their guns, planning to at least hurt the thing before they died. They didn't get far before the sound of a heavy calibre gun being cocked behind them made them pause.

Each looked to find one of the six 'Templar' they'd been facing earlier to little effect with their gun pointed squarely at their head.

One of the Soldiers attempted to wrest the gun away from his head and continue fighting. The gun didn't so much as shift in the Robot's grip before his head exploded, spraying the rest of them with blood and gore.

"Surrender"

It was one word, said in a way that would brook no argument or non-compliance.

What could they do? They dropped their guns and raised their hands.

* * *

Cinder watched the carnage around her in sheer dismay. This army that Cobalt had produced… it was beyond imagining. Machines of every shape and size of a scope Atlas would take decades to even design, let alone produce.

Where had he gotten all of it? How had he done this? How long had he known?

He himself raised questions. His fight with Mercury had shown he wasn't just an extremely powerful hunter. She knew magic when she saw it. What else did he have in store?

She had to move, fast, if she wanted to salvage the situation and make off with her prize… which was made difficult by the fact that Cobalt had exposed her, and she had to ensure she wasn't seen.

Cinder made her way towards Beacon. She would become a maiden today, come hell or high water.


	52. The Dance of Death

**So… yeah, I got bored, and the Computer problem is going nowhere fast, so last week I decided to attempt to rewrite the 'lost' chapters.  
I'll get what I can out, and see if I can continue updating once more**

* * *

"Keep close" Ravaora urged the kids.

Two little goat faunus, her charges, did as she asked, not straying further than a few feet through the grimm, white fang and robot infested streets.

They steered well clear of any gunfire and screams they could hear. Ravaora needed to get the kids out after a grimm had raided the abandoned apartment she'd been living in with the kids.

They wouldn't survive this, and this was the sort of fight that was more likely to end with her winding up dead than anything.

She needed out, and if she knew her quote/unquote 'master', he'd likely have something for getting people out of this fight, if he really was behind all this.

A large boxy aircraft flew overhead.

'Like that' Ravaora thought

"What was that?" One of the Kids asked

"A way out." Ravaora told them, before making a b-line in the direction the aircraft had gone.

* * *

Blake and Weiss were first warned when a large golden streak shot past overhead, followed by a trio of griffons furiously trying to keep up

Then Cobalt appeared at the same time as a large crater, cracked pavers and rubble shredding anything nearby.

Cobalt produced some kind of four-shot rocket launcher and, after but a brief moment of tracking, fired three that arced perfectly and collided with the griffons with a brilliant white flash, leaving nothing in their wake.

Cobalt whooped with joy as he watched the explosions "Hail to the motherfucking chief! Izzy, I fucking love you and your crazy ideas!" he said between concerningly overjoyous laughter

Weiss and Blake rushed over to their 'friend'

"Cobalt!"

"Oh, hey guys, how're you doing?" Cobalt said, stowing the rocket launcher

"We're fine. What the hell is all this?!"

"Project Templar. My final solution… an army of warriors great enough and numerous enough that they can do what civilised society on remnant has been attempting to do for generations: give Remnant to Humanity… all of remnant, to all of humanity." Cobalt said

"Wh- h-how?" Blake asked

"In simple words? I used an exploit to generate a large fortune, and then made it into a small fortune when I purchased and used bullshit tech to create bullshit OP supersoldiers because the grimm are fucking nasty, there simply aren't enough hunters and the current 'bots and mechs on offer are only slightly more effective than throwing rocks."

"Why would you need… _this_? What are you going to do with them?" Blake asked

"You mean, after stamping out the White Fang in such a brutal fashion that no one tries to take down a Kingdom like this ever again and beyond policing the kingdoms as a free and radical agent against large-scale conflict and terrorism that could kill everyone everywhere? I have plans for what I'm calling a Great Crusade. I plan to, hopefully, retake large tracts of Remnant, and just hand them to the Kingdoms, no strings attached beyond keeping in mind what was done to win those lands… y'know, balance out my great evils with great acts of charity and good… As you might've already guessed, these are not civil suppression robots. The bores and calibres are all wrong, the armour is too thick, and these things are ill-suited to Urban warfare. These are trained soldiers, meant to slay monsters. Grimm, Xenos, Demon, I don't care what is going bump in the night, The idea is that these ironclad warriors of mine are to shine humanity's light into even the darkest corners and slay all that reside there, beating the path for the forces of Order and Good to tread out the Chaos and Evil."

Cobalt paused and took a breath.

"That is my goal, my ideal: a Cessation of strife and conflict on Remnant, not just between the Kingdoms, but not even the ever-present Grimm are threatening. Where Humanity, Human, Abhuman and Metahuman alike are not an endangered species. To see a day where nobody has to die… As everyone's goal should be: not just Survival on Remnant, but Thriving without relying on the grand fortresses of the Kingdoms… since everything's looking more than a little fucked so far, I'm bringing in the biggest guns I can in a rough attempt to un-fuck the situation."

Cobalt received a laugh in reply. Not Blake's or Weiss', A harsh, derivative-sounding laugh that at once inspired hatred and fear.

"Adam" both Cobalt and Blake said, Blake sounding scared, Cobalt low and hostile.

Blake glanced at Cobalt

"This psycho is why we're all here, Aren't you? You played along with Cinder, embraced her ideals, and now you're here because you saw us. How many innocents now coat your blade today? How many since Blake left?"

"You know him?"

"Blake, I've had him under the careful scrutiny of intel and spy-bots since I first purchased optical stealth technology… at first, I pitied him, and the White Fang. Like you, I believed they had merely lost their way… then I looked, longer and harder, and the more I saw, the more acts of unforgivable violence and hatred I saw. They are common bullies, thugs and now terrorists of the order of magnitude I'd bury entire kingdoms to suppress if they gained control. They use 'race' as an excuse to act on their hatred and aggression, pretending the execution of innocents is just because others who look like them but act in a completely different manner are mean and horrible. The more I saw, the more I learned to hate them… and none moreso than this babykilling spitfuck." Cobalt explained "This isn't about race any more… not if the hundreds of thousands of faunus dying right fucking now are anything to judge by"

"Traitors to their race." Adam sneered

"And you're not? Allying yourself with the Grimm, destroying the homes and livelihoods of millions of faunus, who is the real monster here? You're a teamkilling fucktard and your head's so far up your ass you'd never see it before you triggered the end of days."

Adamn growled and grasped Wilt.

"Weiss, Blake… I have two orders for you: escape, and show others the so-called 'worst examples' of each other's race working in harmony to defeat this menace." I said

"You're not fighting him alone"

"My second order is more of a request: please, forgive me"

I snapped my fingers and disappeared from reality, taking Adam with me.

"What the- where are we?!" Adam demanded

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath through my nose, savouring the smell of the cherry blossoms, the soft trickle of the stream under the bridge and the chirping of birds.

"The Dojo: a place of quiet solitude, as well as a place of sweat, labour, blood and tears." I said "Access to this pocket realm was a gift, and was meant as a place to hold sparring matches and train in private."

I looked around, the squat three-sided square structure was covered in the aftermath of a cherry blossom bloom

I… might've done some renovation in my spare time whilst getting my gardening up to scratch. Some testing revealed that there was a bonus to skillXP in here.

"Basically, we're outside normal reality right now." I said, before raising my arm skywards

The sky flashed red in a single pulse that raced towards the horizons

"Now we're both trapped here until the duel ends."

I tossed my Halberd to the side. Too long, meant for killing monsters and machines, not men.

I drew my Storm Bolter and Albion, my kriegsmesser.

"Prepare to Die"

Adam was first to move, firing Wilt at me with Blush.

I parried, sending Wilt tumbling overhead and into the roof behind me and attempting to gut a surprised Adam with a thrust from my Storm Bolter's bayonet.

Adam twisted out of the way at the last second and brought Blush up to block my sword

Adam broke away as quickly as he could, and I sent several hunter-killer 'kraken' rounds, which possessed an adamantium core for extra penetrative qualities. The effects on aura and heavily-armoured grimm were worse than the already excessive standard bolt round.

Given I had a grudge to settle and a maniac to put down ASAP, I wasn't complaining.

Adam ducked, rolled and dodged as best as he could until he used a support beam to swing himself up onto the roof and made a bee-line for his sword.

I ducked into the structure, already cooking up a nasty surprise

Adam probably heard my heavy boots clunking against the floorboards as he ran for his sword.

As he pulled it out, I shouldered this latest weapon and fired.

The roof exploded outwards underneath Adam, launching him backwards across the roof tiles, shattering and displacing many as he did so.

I appeared from the hole I'd blown not long after he landed, riding the shockwave of a secondary explosion. At the zenith of my rocket jump, I fired the last two barrels of my M-202 Flash quad-barreled rocket launcher at Adam as I landed besides the first hole I'd blasted. Adam rolled out of the way of the first, and was knocked off the roof by the second.

I discarded the Flash and threw a smoke grenade.

Adam recovered as the courtyard filled with smoke.

Adam was the better straight-up fighter and duelist, but my strength wasn't in duelling, it was in being completely unpredictable. My Kenjutsu and Iaido were lacking, but if you were fighting fair, you were doing it wrong.

If Total War taught me anything, it was that a fair fight costs lives and leads only to pyrrhic victories, if any victory at all.

I attacked from the smoke, Adam's reflexes saving him as I hit and ran in the 4-up cover save.

I didn't dare attack him with any kind of directed energy or fancy tech in case his sword absorbed it. That'd just be stupid.

Eventually the smoke cleared and Adam began hounding me with his sword, and I felt myself hard-pressed to keep up, exchanging flurries.

It was really a west vs east type fight, Adam and I exchanging sword blows and bullets liberally.

Eventually, Adam caught me in the face with a pommel bash, knocking my sunglasses away.

Adam saw my eyes

"What?"

I dropped Albion and decked him with a hook.

"So what. Expecting someone else?"

"What are you?"

"Beyond your comprehension and world-view."

Adam rolled out the way of an execution shot, and got to his feet, moving to keep ahead of my twin-barrelled Assault Shotgun

" I am severely disappointed with you for your violent policies..."

I ducked down and picked up Albion in time to block another strike

"I pitied you for being forced to play nice with Cinder..." I continued

A small flurry, then a saber-lock

"I watched you go from extremist to violent monster, I learned to hate you and everything you stood for as you embraced Cinder's ideals and plans." I added

We broke and exchanged shots

"But most of all, you will die here, today, because when I glimpse the future, I see what you will do to my friends, and with all your other crimes, I find you unrepentant, irredeemable and unforgivable."

"Not if I can help it" Adam said

Adam pressed the attack and I let the final blow in a flurry slip through, totaling my aura, cancelling my buffs and allowing Adam to stab me in the chest, straight through the heart.

The critical hit cost me a lot of health.

The pain was intense and I collapsed like a sack of bricks as Adam kicked me off his sword.

"You MONSTER!"

I felt a cold spike of dread lance through my gut that somehow trumped the pain.

I snapped my head up to see my injury had collapsed the ID, and Yang had seen me impaled on Adam's sword… not only that, she was about to make her exact same mistake. I wanted to shout, to get up, to do _anything_.

I noticed Ruby arriving just in time too. She'd likely seen me get stabbed as well. fuck.

Yang's arm was sliced clean off, Ruby and I helpless to do more than just watch.

Adam flicked the blood off his sword and turned to Ruby

"No… you… you…" Ruby said, rushing to her sister

"How pitiful." Adam sneered

"I won't let you get away with this."

"I already have." Adam said "And now, you both di-"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA _AAAAAAA_ _ **AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH"**_

All heads immediately turned to me.

I was on my feet now, my veins glowed a hodgepodge patchwork of blue, orange and black, my eyes were burning, my bionic arm was sitting a few metres away, glowing orange-hot on the ground, and was replaced by a lattice of magnus remnants that were filled with blue-tipped orange flames. My eyes were like small furnaces, and my breath had become fire.

I was incomplete, and thus the full form escaped me, and the form of an archon made of fire and steel was slowly burning my body away.

 _ **Danger! Power levels extremely unstable. Chance of instant death 5%**_

I ignored the warnings. Without Lisica here to help complete the transformation I was slowly counting down until I died.

"What the-" Adam began, before receiving fire-infused dark fist to the face, sending him skipping across the pavement.

He narrowly managed to roll out the way of the crushing hammer fist that cratered the pavement where he had been not moments before. Instead he found himself lifted when the burning hard wrapped around his ankle to slam him into the ground, before being slammed into the ground on the other side not a moment later, knocking the breath out of him and breaking several ribs.

I watched as the once-mighty warrior was reduced to a groaning mess.

I lifted my burning arm and shot a jet of forge-flames at Adam.

The screams didn't last long.

I reached out to where he had been, towards the mess of ash and charred bone fragments, and reached outwards with my soul, snatching the reapers prize from the clutch of true death.

"I will not tolerate your return. You will not be coming back"

And with that, I crushed the glowing ball of light in the fires the forge-arm.

 _ **Chance of Instant death: 35%**_

That percentile was climbing dangerously high, so I asked, and the second half of my soul arrived, and together she helped unpick the mess I'd made of myself, first stabilising the magic and facilitating the slow recovery towards a human form.

As I returned, what I'd just done, and the ramifications of it, least of all doing it in front of Ruby and Yang occurred to me.

Dread began to replace anger. "I… I lost control." I said

"Cobalt?" Ruby asked

"I- oh fuck…" I was wracked with a terrible coughing fit, barely getting any chance to breathe

"Catch" Lisica said, throwing Ruby a healing potion "That'll tide Yang over 'till we can get her a new arm"

Lisica intensified her ministrations, helping me stop the burning, heal the damage and transmute the metal and dark back into raw mana.

As she worked I began to gain more and more function as the pain lessened. Burning pain is the worst of all pains, the most deep-set, the most primal pain, and my whole body was recovering very slowly from being lit on fire.

Soon I was helping Lisica, before I had the pain managed and could begin to resume working.

I approached Yang, who was nursing her new stump

Yang and Ruby shied away from me. That hurt.

"Yang- Yang... I'm… sorry."

"What in the hell was that?!"

"Lisica and I realized the final stage of our plan: recombining ourselves into one greater being. I… did a stupid thing just now"

As if to punctuate my point, I had a horrible coughing fit. The blood and phlegm I spat up was glowing and quickly cooled to reveal a lump of metal

"I attempted to achieve that without Lisica." I summarized

"And that last part?"

"I was really, _really_ angry at Adam for fouling up one of the half-dozen events that I personally wanted to prevent… that being you becoming left-handed... I am very able to lend you a hand in that regard however."

"Boo" Yang said

"Open offer, s'all I'm saying." I defended "I mean, it's free and all: I only charge for amputations."

Yang winced

"Sorry, bad timing. It won't be your old one, but I will make it up to you… speaking of, I just remembered the next thing on the Agenda"

"What is that?"

"I want to wipe the Grimm Dragon off the face of Remnant"

"The what?!" Ruby and Yang asked together

I straightened up, activated my earpiece and gave the order "This is Regent to The Sword of Damocles: Target Mount Glenn for a Novax Lance, Authorization-" I commanded, and read out the randomly generated twenty-part code in my eyepiece before adding "… drop"

* * *

High above, the supremacy-class bombardment cruiser The Sword of Damocles extended the giant barrel running parallel with the ship, rotating it until it was nearly as long as the kilometer-long cruiser and splitting in half to reveal the twin prongs of a massive railcannon, electricity arcing between them like any good wave-motion tuning fork.

The Sword of Damocles fired its Novax Cannon once, the ferro-tungsten slug screaming through the void at the target below before retracting the armature to recharge

* * *

I watched with delight as Mount Glenn cracked open in a deafening and attention-grabbing rumbling crack, revealing a large black monstrosity: The grimm dragon had awoken.

I saw a bright bolt of orange start small, growing larger before slamming into Mount Glenn, obliterating the landmark in the blink of an eye.

"MOTHER OF FUCK YEAH! TAKE THAT YOU COCKSUCKING BITCH! YOUR LITTLE PET IS FUCKING TOAST!"

"What the hell was that?!" Yang demanded

"Only a giant orbital MAC cannon firing a ferro-tungsten rod with the approximate energy of a small nuclear bomb… though it should have been less damaging than that: I essentially shot a giant nail that hit with two megatons of energy, yes, but it's supposed to penetrate, not flatten when it hits a target… test fires at wastelands in the pocket realm showed less damage than this"

I was interrupted by a loud, angry roaring

I turned, and saw that whilst it was worse for the wear; its wings tattered, many scales missing, horns shattered, tungsten spear impaled through its chest, Sinh style, and missing half its health bar, It was still alive and was now very angry.

"Oh fuck"

* * *

 **If I had more time, I'd probably revise some sections of this chapter... but today is Wednesday, and Wednesday is update day.**

 **I have to thank you all for all your love and support throughout this past year: GfG is a year old. A year since I said 'fuck it' and started penning my longest, best, most successful fanfic to date.**

 **The list of thankyous is long, but most of you know who you are: those of you who I've spent many long evenings discussing and planning and mucking about with... It's been a wild ride and all, and I have you guys to thank as much as my own inane ramblings.  
and, of course, those who have read, reviewed, liked, recommended and more. You are the real MVP of this tale.**


	53. Pulling out all the stops

**To the Guest reviewer who asked about some of the events coming up (seriously, do sign in/up, I** _ **love**_ **chatting to people who ask questions): I've been planning something like the next segment all along. The Grimm Dragon is ancient, and I thought it would be appropriate if he needed several giant bangs to take down**

* * *

"Oh fuck" I said watching as the Grimm Dragon struggled to take off

Initially, I was confused as to why the GD wasn't taking off to fuck us all over, until my eye was led to the spear, and I saw that it had pinned the Grimm Dragon in place.

Even my most generous estimates put the Grimm Dragon well over Vale by the time the Novax Canon had recharged and reloaded. Even with the pinning, I didn't hold very high hopes of the GD being anywhere outside the minimum safe no-fire zone when the Novax was ready... and, given the current state of the Grimm dragon's health, assuming the mountain hadn't shielded it, I didn't have anything in Vale that could hurt it.

Reluctant as I was, I was currently very desperate for firepower, and activated yet another project before it was 100% ready.

"Control, this is Reagent. Novax Lance was only partially effective, requesting immediate assistance, repeat, this is Reagent requesting immediate assistance-."

"Valean / _Ordinance / Insufficient"_

"I know that you dipshit, let me finish. Activate Sub-Project Princeps, send me a trio of Rambo patterns, now!"

I shouted my authorization code into the earpiece again, and, the watched for next few, very worrying, minutes as the Grimm Dragon attempted to escape its impalement. I was starting to get worried at how much wiggle it had attained when three deafening blasts heralded the arrival of my greatest war machines yet.

And what beauties they were. Twelve metres tall, bipedal, hunchbacked robots adorned in heavy armour, sporting a Battle Cannon on one arm, a twin-linked Vulcan Mega bolter in the other and a Heavy AAA Flak Cannon on its back

The Knight-class Titan Warmech was my most awe inspiring unit. Their true scale only becoming apparent as they stood up and attained their full height.

"Ruby, Yang, meet the Knight Titan: what happens when you let yourself dare to dream big. It takes an entire month to make them, and they are my Anti-Monsters, the mosnters we make to destroy actual monsters. Elder Grimm, Goliaths and their ilk shall be the ones to feel the might of such unbridled wrath."

I saw several people come running wondering what the noise was

They all stopped short as they saw the three mechanical colossi.

"Everyone! Cover your ears!" I shouted at the crowd

I then pointed with my remaining good arm

"Titans! Open Fire at the monster of Mount Glenn!" I bellowed, just as the Dragon freed itself

The Titans happily obliged, opening up with all their guns. The Rambo pattern was so-named because it was supposed to be a giant gunboat loaded with as many slugthrowers a possible, and meant to attack in a similar manner to their namesake. It became next to impossible to think with the sheer number of artillery-sized blasts happening not too far away.

Some time later, the firing stopped. Even longer afterwards, the ringing in my ears died down enough that I could begin to communicate again.

"That was freaking awesome…" I said after I drank a health potion to fix my ear drums.

Curious, I checked and saw that Ruby was, predictably, having something close to a religious experience so I decided it would be best to leave her be. A crowd arrived to see what was going on, and, to my incredible relief, I saw Pyrrha and Jaune come running from the opposite direction

A dust cloud still lingered, obscuring my view of Mount Glenn.

"Observer 4-1, can you confirm the kill? Did we kill it?" I asked

I was kept waiting for several, long, painful seconds... Unfortunately, my answer was not from Observer 4-1. Instead, I saw the Grimm Dragon winging it towards Vale.

"How tough is this thing to kill?!" I demanded as it quickly crossed the distance between Mount Glenn and Vale.

"Shit, what do we do?!" someone in the crowd asked, panicked

"Fire again!"

"He's too close, I'd take a crapton of Vale with us." I shouted in response

Lisica cleared her throat, quelling the panic.

"Cobalt…"

"What?"

"Have you forgotten so easily?" Lisica asked

"Forgotten what?" I asked in return

"That little thing Kyuubi are known for." Lisica said

"Which one, there's, like… nine or so things, ironically enough" I said

"The one about mixing ki."

My eyes went wide, before I smacked my forehead

"Of course. Fucking hell."

"What?" someone asked

"The Tailed Beast Ball" I said, laughing, before nodding at Lisica and shouting at the Knight Titans to shift so there was room

"What's a ball supposed to do?"

"You'll see"

Lisica hopped back as the Knight Titans cleared space and assumed her truest form

The Fox that resulted was over 15 metres tall at the shoulder, and dwarfed the Knight Titans

"See, Lisica's actually a gargantuan-sized nine-tailed fox… the size apparently comes with the tail count, she was normal sized when she was born." I said "And, as it turns out, Tailed Beasts share a signature move… the nine-tailed fox's version being the most powerful, even."

"Quit messing around and spit it out!" someone demanded

I smiled the biggest, widest, most shit-eating grin I'd ever smiled and said "The Tailed Beast Ball… the Bijuudama. For raw destructive power, legends and tales paint descriptions that make what I just did to Mount Glenn look tame. Lisica is about to unleash the power of the heavens, the wrath of the gods!"

As I said this, Lisica fanned her tails, which began to glow with gathered cosmic and life energies, before each curled forward, their tips pointed forward as the tails abruptly stopped glowing as a giant yellow-black ball of power formed in Lisica's mouth, sucking in lines from each of her tails.

Then Lisica swallowed it. She arced her head upwards before roaring at the Dragon

Only, it wasn't a roar that came out.

Briefly the evening sky above Vale was lit up a brilliant gold, and the fighting ground to a calamitous halt as all paused to behold the beam of unimaginable energy that lanced straight out of Lisica's mouth and blasted the dragon.

It lasted seconds; It felt like minutes, and when it was done, all that was left was the smoke of a dead grimm and superheated iron and tungsten vapor.

I stood in awe and fear of what I'd wrought. A (severely weakened) Elder Grimm, gone; A 600 metric ton Iron-Tungsten nail, vaporised…

I wasn't going to use the Bijuudama again in a hurry… It was practically the definition of something too powerful for any but the most extreme circumstances.

Lisica shrunk back down to her human form, the clothes macro preventing unintended exposure, and I rushed to catch her.

"That was amazing Liz." I said

"I feel like I just had Boris step on me" Lisica replied, pointing.

I looked to my side and noticed that someone had stencilled "BORIS" on one of the Knight Titan's feet.

I idly wondered when Lisica had done that.

"Nonetheless, you were awesome." I said helping Lisica to her feet, wrapping her arm around my shoulders

"It looks like, with that, we're hitting the crescendo. Think you can make it?" I asked

"I'll be fine. I just need to lie down for a bit." Lisica replied

"When you're good and ready" I said, helping Lisica over towards Yang and Ruby

"Since when could you do that?" Yang asked

"Since about… I think it was about five tails that we could perform something similar, but the charge times and mana costs for even a low-powered shot were just unfeasible… it's more of the usual Ki manipulation that goes into Lisica's unique magic." I said "And I've been keeping all the power moves and some of the more normal moves under wraps so Cinder didn't cotton on so I could wrench the noose around her neck like this… of all my abilities, I only have two moves that trump that one, however."

"What's that?" Ruby and Yang asked

"Give Liz a moment to rest, and we'll show you. They're tandem moves." I said "And I want you two to promise me one thing: After I've shown you it, I want you to find your way to a Thunderbird and get to safety. Can you promise me that?"

Ruby and Yang hestiantly nodded

"Cobalt… what was that?"

"A Grimm Dragon which would've spelled doom for Vale should Cinder have awoken it uncontested. It drops Grimm as it flies, like, sweating off drops of liquid darkness and stuff… and you saw what it took to kill the damned thing." I said

Blake slapped me

"If you really wanted to spite me, you'd use Yang's arm, Blake." I said, indicating the severed limb.

"Why?!"

"Because he hurt my friends. Because we protect our own. Because I don't want to lose another friend to this clusterfuck… Penny's dead and though I plan to do something about that, I can only do so much." I said

"You can do what?" Weiss asked

I produced a familiar-looking necklace

"I gave one of these to those people I consider special… This one is Penny's, and within its gem rests the imprisoned soul of the first synthetic human, automatically drawn into it when she died. I plan to free her and give her a new body." I said "the spell is highly experimental, the costs are astronomical, and I am the only person on Remnant who has even a snowball's chance in hell of performing this… miracle."

I saw a number of hands shoot to throats and chests where their own soulstone was clasped

"It is the greatest gift I can give... And I give it freely to you: Those I would call friend and Ally in all but the most troubled times... though, I am afraid I can only give it once. Use it wisely, stay alive" I said

This was, of course, punctuated by a loud explosion coming from Beacon Tower.

"What the- oh no, oh no… where's Pyrrha?!" I demanded

I could feel nothing but horror when I realised that Pyrrha was nowhere to be found

"No, no, no, no, no, nononono NO! You stupid fucking girl! Why would you throw your life away pointlessly! If you'd waited, if you'd asked, we'd have come running! FUCK!"

"What's going on?"

"Pyrrha's gone to confront the Fall Maiden on her own. She's gonna be destroyed!" I shouted

"We have to help her!"

"Cinder's too powerful, you'd only join her fate!" I said

"But you just said you could-" Blake started

"Once. ONCE! Don't just throw away my gift like that! It is a _second_ chance, not an eighteenth! Just because I can bring you back doesn't mean that death is meaningless!" I said

Lisica was on her feet in a second

"Let's make this quick" I said

Lisica nodded in response

"What're you doing?"

"Achieving Unity" I said as Lisica and I stood several paces to each other's side, facing the same direction in a wide stance with our arms both pointed outwards. We walked sideways towards each other, bringing out arms overhead in an arc before bending a quarter turn at the waist and touching our fingertips together above our now-tilted heads

A Terran observer might have pegged it for a mockup of the fusion dance.

Our forms blurred together and began shedding incandescent light before both shot into one greater whole. A great wind blew across the plaza as Lisica and I became one being.

Then, from our shadows, Magnus came, appearing as a black liquid that arose from the ground and encircled our sphere. Magnus was as integral to this as Lisica was. As Magnus joined the light, the sphere stopped shining and became an opaque silver colour. The colour of steel.

Flames erupted from the ground and circled around us, casting shadows between dancing lights everywhere, eventually fusing with the orb.

The sphere then began to pull everything in towards itself, growing as it went until it had grown to almost twice its size. The sphere then exploded in an impressive display of force.

I caught myself as I landed in the crater this had created, and found that I was… me. I was whole once more… and I felt the three 'splits' in my soul that defined each individual were mere scars now, showing what had once been.

I looked at myself, and saw I was wearing mufti, of all things: a simple shirt and hoodie, cargo pants, hiking shoes… all simple, dull earth clothing, with no thought to colour co-ordination or anything 'because who do I have to impress?'. Though I looked completely normal, I was anything but: Gamer was going crazy. Cobalt, Lisica and Magnus' stats had all been combined, skill levels had all doubled, and I felt a… power thrum in my veins, like my every motion had the potential to cause something awe inspiring.

"Cobalt?" Ruby asked

"That is the name of one of my aspects, yes." I replied

"What?" ruby asked

"I'm just messing with you… I am also Lisica and Magnus as well right now."

"What?"

"The bond can only be maintained temporarily, the magic that produced Lisica is pushing against the union, and my Aura is attempting to force Magnus out, but, until the effects of Unity fade, we are as one… Individually we have grown strong; together, working as one being, that power is amplified many times… now, I have a flame-haired champion to save, and I will not forgive myself if I let her die" I said, not bothering to wait for a reply

I crouched, gathered that potential in my legs, and with a single bound, cratered the ground underneath me as I leaped straight to Beacon tower

As I flew, I noticed that my shoes had been obliterated, burned to charcoal and I saw lines of glowing orange as the power remained in my feet, ready to catch me after such an impossible leap.

I could feel the power running down to the very core of my being. Cinder had better have made her peace, because I was coming for her with a full tank of vengeance.


	54. Final Phase

**I am SO sorry for the late post... Wednesday was kinda a headfuck for me... so have two chapters to make up for it.**

* * *

"Don't worry, I'll be sure to use this power in ways you couldn't even imagine"

"Do you believe in Destiny?" Pyrrha asked

"Yes" Cinder replied, before loosing the arrow

I crashed through the roof of Beacon Tower in a shower of flame, converting the spacious office at its top into an 'open air' design.

I took in the scene before me. As Cinder was processing what was going on, I dashed forward impossibly fast and smacked Cinder to the side as I moved to cradle Pyrrha in my arms.

"Oh- oh shit" I said as Pyrrha made choking noises, her face a rictus of agony.

"No, no, no, not like this. Why did you have to run off? Pyrrha… I-I've already lost one friend, why did you have to make it two?" I babbled, struggling to not cry.

Pyrrha couldn't reply before she expired, her body converting to ash and leaving behind little more than two artefacts: Her diadem and her necklace.

"Goddamnit Pyrrha" I said as I held the gem containing the Champion of Mistral

I pocketed the gem and the crown and rose to my feet again

"Did I kill your girlfriend?" Cinder taunted

"No" I replied "But that didn't mean she wasn't precious to me… now, if you don't mind, I have one last thing to ask you"

"Oh?"

I turned to reveal the veins glowing on my face

"Eat shit and die" I said before dashing forward and punching her in the time it took to blink

Cinder immediately hit the ground, as I'd punched her forehead. Her Aura had absorbed the blow, but she'd have a nasty headache right about now

I stomped, a miniature shockwave lifting anything nearby to chest height, including Cinder and roundhouse kicked her hard enough to leave a shockwave, sending her rocketing out of Beacon Tower.

I felt something flake away from my face, but currently I was that angry that I put it in the 'later' pile.

Cinder stumbled to her feet from where she'd managed to slow her fall into a landing, tapping into her newfound Maiden powers and quickly putting up a forcefield in an attempt to stop Cobalt from throwing her around again.

* * *

Cinder looked up and saw a burning meteor descending on her position. It didn't take a genius to figure out that that was Cobalt.

Only, when the meteor landed several feet from her, what emerged from the flames wasn't Cobalt.

The figure before her was taller than even those robots Cobalt claimed to have made, and was a statuesque figure seemingly made from animate steel, barring the charred pants it was wearing and the lines traced across this figure, highlighting muscle groups and tracing patterns across 'Cobalts' body with veins of glowing, molten steel and liquid fire.

Cobalt snapped his fingers, and Cinder found the words ' _ **Deathmatch Accepted**_ 'flashing in front of her eyes.

A small flash of light traced a large flat circle around her and Cobalt.

"What are you?"

Cobalt paused to look at his hands "I suppose I'm an Archon, aren't I? Made of Steel… and fire…"

Cobalt screwed up his face, and four arms the size of tree trunks erupted from his back in a spray of glowing, molten steel and fire. Each arm was made from visibly writhing darkness that rippled as if in a non-existent breeze

"And Darkness… Aurum's going to flip when she sees this."

Cinder's glass arrow snapped in several places on Cobalt's skin of magical steel.

"I might not have an aura in my current form, Cindy, but you'll need better than that to so much as scratch me." Cobalt jeered

Cinder's eyes lit up as she drew upon her maiden powers.

"Yes, that's it… show me your rage, your anger. Give me your all" Cobalt said, smiling "and I will show you mine"

Cinder let Cobalt have what he was asking for: a beam of energy that Cobalt didn't block or dodge. Instead he stretched out an arm and fired a blast of fire, at first a billowy orange-yellow fire, like that of gasoline that Cinder's beam cut through like a cloud.

Cobalt's arm sprayed fire and molten steel everywhere as it endured the punishment before the flames concentrated, going down to the blue-white of an acetylene torch, where the spray slowed down to a crawl before intensifying to the brilliant white of a plasma torch.

Cinder dived out of the way as the Sun's Fury slagged the area she'd been standing.

Cinder retreated, floating upwards, but Cobalt had other ideas. Sending a blast of flames downwards he rapidly closed the gap between him and Cinder and performed a double-fisted slam on Cinder's shield before driving himself down for a second slam from on high with his upper hands in an explosive slam that cracked pavement

Cobalt retreated as three black arrows sprouted from his body. He felt that one.

Cobalt laughed, the fire dust was either an uninformed or a panicked choice. Cobalt snapped the shafts off the arrows, the glass melting in the furnace of his body and pooling out of his feet. Cobalt stamped his left foot, creating a sheet of ice that slicked the floor, turning the second warhead against Cinder.

Skating on a cushion of steam as the ice sublimed under his feet, Cobalt rapidly crossed the distance to Cinder and struck her with the warhead in his right shoulder, a bolt of lightning accentuating Cobalt's punch.

Cinder retaliated, a blast of energy throwing Cobalt back as he braced himself with his lower two arms

* * *

RWBY, JN_R and CFVY watched as Cobalt duked it out with Cinder, flinching as a bolt of energy impacted against the barrier separating them from the fight, causing geometric patterns to flash into visibility before fading.

Each had their own thoughts about what was going on, though the common thread amongst them were sheer amazement.

RWBY knew best what Cobalt assuming that form meant, after all, Yang losing her arm not five minutes earlier set a clear precedent. Cinder had done something to Pyrrha.

Velvet was seeing a darker, wilder side to Cobalt, and it scared her.

Nora was sitting there, enraptured by the bright lights of two intensely glowing characters firing energy blasts at one another.

Qrow watched from the back, seeing Cobalt do something he'd never even heard of and facing down a Maiden, one with Salem's blessings no less, and winning… even if he had to become a fiery rage monster to do it. He was unstable, and wielded more power than he'd thought possible… Qrow would have to make sure Cobalt didn't do something stupid… er

Cinder fired an energy bolt at me, and then another as I dodged out of the way of the first one, the impact shearing through my arm and, though it didn't damage it, sprayed plenty of 'blood' across the broken arena.

I intensified my heat and sprayed white-hot flames across the arena, slagging most anything solid and heating the floor to a nice red glow. I was an Archon of Steel, Flames and Dark, thanks to my 'split personality', so the heat didn't bother me. I was a rare and very powerful, though historically very unstable and dangerous abomination that was probably giving Aurum, and by extension Metasoft, the panic attack of the century.

Cinder was barely maintaining that accursed energy shield, and we both knew that the second it went down Cinder was fucked.

"Cinder" I said

There was a pause. No one moved or said anything.

"I want you to sit there, and think on everything that led to this point, this one moment in time; Here, fighting me. I don't know where or when or even how you met Salem, but joining forces with her was a stupid idea. The Grimm are the enemies of everything, and by lending aid to them, you have declared yourself an enemy of the light. I don't profess to being a saint, or even not a hypocrite, after all, one of my three aspects is darkness."

I chuckled, as if enjoying some inane joke.

"And the thing about darkness? It has this nasty habit of swallowing up those who try and dabble with it. I know everything, Cinder Fall, and soon this world will shake with the beating march of the war you have inspired. They say a person dies twice, once when they actually die, and again when their name is uttered for the last time… rejoice, Cinder, for I have brought you astride my lofty perch and made you immortal."

"You're insane, you're a monster!"

"Says the bitch who allied herself with the grimm. I'm just being dramatic." I said "You, on the other hand, are guilty of crimes against humanity. Be thankful I am above lynching you with your entrails." I said, before charging up a Bijuudama. I crushed it in my hand, charged and punched.

Cinder impacted the main viewscreen of 'Boris', having had her barrier, and Gamer's duelling barrier shattered.

I was on her not long after

"Since you seem all too happy to steal another person's soul for personal power, I decided I'd take a page out of your book: After all, do unto others as you would have done unto you… a core tenet of Outer Heaven's soon-to-be-instated legal code." I said, grinning

"You wouldn't… you couldn't." Cinder said, trying to get away from me, but with two broken legs, a shattered arm and most of her ribcage being broken, she didn't get far.

"You would, could and shouldn't have… and now, you reap the rewards of your treachery."

I manipulated one of the auxillary arms flipping Cinder so she was lying on her back, showing her the 'mouth' forming on its palm, one that didn't spout flames but led to a gaping, black abyss instead.

I placed this 'mouth' squarely over her chest and began 'sucking'. Cinder writhed, she screamed and cursed and spat as her aura visibly drained away until she quieted to silence

In my hands I held a glowing orb the size of a cantaloupe, made of intertwined red and, surprisingly, orange. Excited beyond words at this amazing windfall, I immediately began picking, untangling and more until I had drawn the orange soul from the red one, amazed at what I'd found.

I immediately used soul crystallization to store Autumn's soul, safeguarding it against death.

I was going to crush Cinder's soul as well- I didn't want some shitheads with more magical power than sense bringing her back in two centuries' time-... except that didn't happen.

The soul was sucked into the gaping maw in my arm, and I saw the thing writhe and blow up like a balloon, before it came down with an audible crunch, that left a red mist seeping between the gaps and through the flames, which crawled along my body until it seeped in around my chest

I stared in abject horror of what had happened.

 _ **You have consumed the soul of Cinder Fall**_

"I… I…"

I felt myself come apart at the seams, literally, and soon enough I reverted back to good ol' one-armed Cobalt Jinn, even changing costumes back to my usual 'longcoat cuirassier' uniform.

Magnus seeped out of my empty arm socket like a liquid and Lisica appeared in a whirl of mana originating from a glyph.

We had a net of approximately 450 intelligence networked between us, and none of us could even begin to comprehend what we had just accidentally done, just staring in shock

And then the images came, flashes of memory, with emotions and thought attached all arrived at once in a giant, confused mess.

We all shouted and fell unconscious

Lieutenant General Argent Talos hauled the unconscious duo towards the prison transports. Due to the sensitive nature of both, Talos made sure to keep them separated. He'd just finished restraining them when a high-priority alert was sounded: the General was unconscious.

As the both the highest-ranking and closest operative, Talos sealed the prison transports so that only him and the General could open it and immediately ran to support the General.

When he got there, he found a crowd encroaching on the general(s), and no active hostiles.

He immediately ordered them back so he could tend the General.

"General! Sir, can you hear me?" Talos asked

"General?"

"Explanations later." Talos replied rifling through his inventory for the vial of smelling salts.

As soon as he put them under the General's nose, the General snapped awake and attempted to bolt upright… unfortunately, that meant he headbutted Talo's chin.

"Bwah- Fuck!"

Talos, who had tanked the blow without flinching merely produced a large triple-injector with a red, blue and green potion, for general purpose alchemical restoration in the heat of battle, and shot it into Cobalt's arm.

Cobalt snapped more awake as the alchemical reagents did their job.

"Talos? Ah shit, how long was I out?"

"Less than five minutes" Talos said "Are you going to be okay?"

"Yeah, yeah… just had a bit of a magical backlash." Cobalt said "Nothing to get too antsy about… mind helping me up?"

Talos hauled Cobalt's arm over his shoulder and helped him stand

"Great… now, can you get Liz up?" Cobalt asked "I'm going to need her for my last miracle"

"Of course, sir."

I turned to the gathered crowd

"Okay, people, back up a bit. I have one last thing to do dirtside, one that'll trump whatever you just saw"

"Cobalt?"

I looked and saw Ruby and the rest of my friends off to one side.

"Hey guys… I'll be answering questions later, when I can fully disclose everything. Right now, I need to do something, put right a wrong." I said

"What?"

"Well, I figured out a way to perform yet another impossible feat. Qrow, you old bastard! Get over here where everyone can see you!" I said, shouting the last part to a certain observer in the back of the crowd

"Yes?" Qrow asked, seemingly quite mad at me.

"Come, come. You're gonna love this."

"I'm not going anywhere until you cough up an answer."

"Well, fuck, just demand that I ruin the surprise, then. Fine, I've got three souls trapped in solid crystal on my person. Souls of two friends and the actual Autumn Maiden."

"Two friends?"

"Penny and Pyrrha. I can't be everywhere to freeze a soul solid when one of you dies, so I gave them necklaces that trap their souls so death can't get at them. It's best you don't know what it takes to get a soulgem, but do know that they are extremely valuable… i've repurposed my familiar spell, stripping it down until it can put a body around a disembodied soul."

"You seriously expect me to believe that?" Qrow asked

"Not on my word, no… See, there's only a few places in the entire world where I might have so much as a shot of pulling this off. Beacon's one of them: a point where the ley lines intersect, creating a nexus from which extraordinary amounts of power can be drawn." I explained

Qrow hardened his gaze at me.

"Come, I'll show you."

A flick of the wrist destroyed the statue out the front of Beacon in a blast of explosive energy.

I produced a giant keg filled to the brim with mana potion with a motorised IV hookup, plugging it into a socket on a special arm that I plugged into the socket on my shoulder, I felt the mana potion top me up until I was saturated with mana.

Lisica appeared and hooked herself up as well with a cruder hollow metal hook.

We sat opposite of each other and began casting. A giant magic circle appeared, with the pedestal that the statue sat on at its centre.

I produced Penny's soulstone first. It floated to hover above the centre of the circle and started incanting the spell.

I felt myself drain of mana at an alarming rate, until I used _Soul of the World_ , and linked myself to Gaia, asking for her assistance.

Rainbow coloured energies flowed through me, Lisica and the magic circle, converging on the glowing soulstone as it shattered and suffused into pure mana which was caught by the spell and drawn towards the brightly glowing mass at the centre.

Penny would be reborn this day


	55. Aftermath

**OOPS!**

 **Looks like we had a mix-up: this is supposed to be chapter 55, not 54.  
Look, go back and read the previous chapter for the totally awesome fight scene and context.**

 **fuck.**

* * *

"There's not enough mana in the world to complete the spell!"

"We have to try!" Cobalt shouted back at Lisica

"It'll fail!" Lisica argued

"Then so be it! I will not go back on my promise! We both live, or we both die!" Cobalt replied

"I can't let that happen!" Lisica shouted back

"Then _DO SOMETHING!_ "

Lisica was taken aback at Cobalt's outburst.

"Cobalt's gone mad, hasn't he?" Ruby asked

"He… He said he'd kill himself if this fails." Yang said

"He what?!" most of the teams asked

"He teleported away before I could talk to him when all this happened, but he said either he'd bring back Penny or kill himself..."

Cobalt was struggling to sustain the reaction, arms spread out wide, a wide-eyed wild look on his face, blood tracing thin rivers across his face as his eyes, mouth and nose all bled.

Lisica took a moment to see Cobalt, feel his desperation, and then focused, before converting one of her tails into raw power.

The extreme pulse of mana was quickly drawn in, and Cobalt regarded her with a look of shocked surprise, before grateful acceptance flooded their bond.

With that contribution, they were in the black, and the reaction almost immediately stabilised.

Lisica felt the loss in her power and control, but quickly adjusted, and soon the half-formed genderless being, the blank slate their previous efforts had conjured, began to take shapes and forms that the soul remembered as its final form.

Cobalt wasn't going to sculpt his friends, or change anything about them. Their soul would produce a form as close as he could get to their previous life's form. A few minutes later, Penny's form stopped glowing and the spell ended not long after, the excess mana seeming to disappear into her body

Cobalt and Lisica collapsed, and Talos swooped forward to catch his newly reborn 'cousin' before she could concuss herself on the hard stone. Talos soon had her nude form swaddled in a large blanket and picked her up bridal style. He soon handed her to Ruby, and readied another blanket.

Cobalt and Lisica, still hooked up to the last dregs of the keg, clumsily regained their feet.

"I… I did it." Cobalt said, before laughing, starting at a nervous chuckle that soon became a full body laughing/sobbing fest

"I did it!" he cheered between overjoyed bouts of laughter and sobs of joy, overwhelmed by emotion as he was "I fucking did it!"

The gathered crowd didn't know what to make of Cobalt, as he switched back and forth from laughter to crying, his face constantly bearing a massive smile

Cobalt eventually caught his breath and stared as Lisica shuddered in discomfort as one of her tails glowed briefly before splitting in two.

Cobalt stared in wonderment, and read the message presented to him

 _ **Your advanced state of power has advanced your familiar's power**_

"What in the heck does that mean?"

"That there was a store of power, enough to craft more tails after I hit the maximum… there was enough for three extra tails." Lisica said "Chances are if you'd summoned me at the appropriate level, i'd have automatically gained tails to match your power"

"C-convenient… just enough to resurrect the three whose souls I bear."

Cobalt produced another bus-sized keg of super mana potion, rolling the old one towards Beacon with a kick

"Let's just hammer out Pyrrha and Autumn so we can blow this popsicle stand." Cobalt said

Lisica nodded

Again we drew upon every magical resource we had and this time Lisica was quicker to pop a tail. The spell never became unstable, and the timing was such that there was little excess left over. Overall, Pyrrha's resurrection went much, much smoother than Penny's

Once again, Talos had a blanket ready to preserve some of Pyrrha's decency and handed her to Jaune to hold

Once Lisica's tail had regenerated, we moved on to Autumn. Hers was, oddly enough, the easiest of all three to resurrect, as her soul seemed to readily assist the recreation. It was likely her Maiden powers interacting with the spell.

Talos handed Autumn to Qrow

Cobalt regained his feet and took a deep breath. "Fix all you broke, break what you build. Right your wrongs and leave nothing left." he muttered before leaping up on the pedestal and addressing the crowd

"Alright, so, if all Evacuees would accompany me to the Thunderbird heavy transports, this includes all Combat Academy Students and any Hunters not wishing to stay in this shitstorm to help clean 'er up in addition to all civilians and noncombatants, so we can take you to a safe zone in high orbit, that would be appreciated. You have my word of honour that not a single one of you shall be harmed whilst in my care."

"Why should we trust you?!"

"Because a Templar hasn't come along and torn your skull out through your ass yet." Cobalt said bluntly "If I was at all gunning for you, I have a giant, unstoppable robotic army that deployed here in minutes, and enough firepower to level an entire Kingdom in seconds, and yet the only things I have directed any of that at are Grimm and those who would help the Grimm. I don't need to be at all subtle about destroying the Kingdoms or slaughtering innocents en masse, because there is simply nothing the Kingdoms can do to stop me; and if I have such insane, unpunishable might to throw around, there has to be a reason I haven't used or dismantled it. Consider it a sign of my goodwill that I have arrayed the Templar between you and the harm, pointed the big guns at your enemies, and even opened my home to you to use as a safe haven away from the dangers of all Remnant."

"Your home?" Qrow asked

"Well, I had to stash an entire army of sentient robot super-soldiers somewhere, and since I was spending a good 60% of my time up there, I decked out a swanky VIP suite… and I am never resorting to slang from the 1960's ever again." I said "At least for curiosity's sake, I'd ask you to come and see the sights with me."

I hopped down and walked towards the Thunderbirds

I extended a hand holding a V.I.P. pass

"Plus, as a relative of a friend, you'd get unlimited access to the V.I.P. lounge, which includes an open bar featuring ales, spirits, liquors and wines not found anywhere on Remnant." I added

Qrow glared at me and accepted the pass

"Excellent. Now then, if we could form an orderly and calm procession to load the Thunderbirds. I'm afraid most of you will have to stand for 15 minutes as we fly there, but if you don't mind that, this is the last call to evacuate at this point. If you have family or relatives you'd prefer to visit, I can provide pilots for atmospheric flights." I said.

I nodded at Lisica, who recalled to Outer Heaven.

I waited aboard the Daedalus as the umbilicals finished pressurizing

"Welcome, Ladies and Gents, to Outer Heaven, the city in the sky." I said as I gestured across the void, where, through the forcefield keeping the atmosphere in, one could see the titanic structure that was Outer Heaven

I'd made sure to make the Umbilical clear-topped, so people could see the absolutely massive structure before them.

"Made using the wonders of digistruct technology to rapidly fabricate entire residential and commercial centres at once over the course of several weeks, Outer Heaven represents a pinnacle of technological achievement, and is at the forefront of design, bringing only the very best in safe, clean technologies from the very pages of science fiction to life. Among the many wonders up here, you may notice wonders and minor miracles like artificial gravity, human-level sentient robotic life, rapid fabrication technology and more. All of this is freely accessible to anyone living here… that's kinda the whole point of this."

"So… what? Is this supposed to be a new Kingdom?" Someone asked

"Yes, actually. The actual declaration of secession from the Kingdom of Vale is pending, but for all intents and purposes, this is entirely a new sovereign Kingdom, on a brand new frontier… imagine: an entire Kingdom that doesn't have to deal with Grimm."

"How do you keep this place powered?" Qrow asked

"I'm sorry?"

"Dust only works on Remnant, what do you use?"

"I suppose that's harmless enough: I utilize what's called a Zero-Point energy generator to provide Outer Heaven with her energy demands. It utilises an obscure quantum concept to draw almost infinite clean energy from a very small pocket realm that is maintain within the vessel. It's a not-insignificant amount of power, Outer heaven could be lit up like a christmas tree 24/7 and we'd still have thousands of generations of power… and the wonders of technoogy make even that automated"

"Impressive." Qow said "I understood very little of that."

"I have a machine that works off of what essentially amounts to techno-wizardry to violate the conservation of mass-energy to produce infinite electrical energy for so long that it'll be over 1,500 generations before someone has to replace the damned thing."

"I'd say that's impossible, but you've already done that a few times tonight" Qrow said

I laughed "I suppose I have, haven't I? Well, tonight is a night of a lot of exposed secrets."

The umbilical pressurized, and we crossed through.

On either side of the exit was a line of Templar, each wearing a tabard emblazoned with what was to be their heraldry. I walked forward undaunted as a shouted command in Solresol had each of the Templar bring a clenched fist to their chest; A Templar's Salute.

As the refugees began to follow, each Templar bowed their heads and dropped to one knee, kneeling before them.

I heard the whispers, people skeptical of the royal welcome.

"Our first and most noticeable acheivement are The Templar. They exist to serve humanity as The finest band of warriors in all the Kingdoms, and each and every last one fights to safeguard you from the monsters of the dark howling and clawing at the gates, with strength second only to the Hunters, and in far greater numbers." I said "Fear them not, for no righteous citizen of the Kingdoms should have any reason to fear their wrath. Treat them well, for the guardians of humanity are modeled on that they protect, and are made to learn to live, love and hate as you do. I have taught them to be soldiers, but to you I trust the most important duty of all: to take these machines, these warriors of steel and fire, and make them something more. Something quintessentially human. Their lives are in your hands."

No one said anything

"Feel free to stay as long as you wish, we will be accepting any and all who wish to stay in the safety of Outer Heaven on a more permanent basis, Her gifts and bounties are officially yours to enjoy… flights down will start as soon as the last of the fighting clears up and we can make a clean sweep to make sure there aren't grimm in hiding somewhere in our beloved Vale. Those of you with VIP passes, you know who you are, can ask one of the steward bots, the floating orbs with three eyes and arms, to direct you to a meeting room for the obvious discussion. For the rest of you, I would only recommend that people visit the Agri-dome at least once during your stay and keep in mind that the station is going to look and feel empty for now, but as people begin to move in that will change… Teams RWBY, JNPR, CFVY, a bot will escort you to somewhere the recently re-embodied may recover and find some basic clothing. I would like to apologize for how long that's taken"

And with that I bowed before leaping into a backflip, at the zenith of which I teleported away

"Showoff"

I frantically got the meeting room busy, preparing my presentation. Everything had to be perfect.

I eventually noticed that there was a large, black bird, which I eventually identified as a crow, and not the larger and more intelligent raven, sitting on one of the tables.

"You know, I much prefer ravens. They're bigger, smarter, and can be trained to do all sorts of things." I told the little bird "Not that I'm judging much. Crows are fine too, I guess… just a bit dopey… and, of course, it's hard to choose what your semblance is."

Qrow cleared his throat at the doorway

I looked between Qrow and the Crow several times, before shooing the corvid away.

"You didn't see that. Little fucker must've gotten out of the aviary… or something's fucking with me."

"My Semblance?" Qrow questioned

"I… must've read something somewhere, pardon my assumption." I said "You're early."

"You didn't specify a time."

"No, I didn't… it just means you'll be waiting longer with little more than tea, biscuits and myself for company… terrible company that is." I said "I should know."

"As cute as the self-deprecation is, I'm here because I wanted to ask you something."

"I'll be answering plenty of those: this is a Q&A, not a Council Meeting."

"I'm stuck here wondering what kind of place you came form to dream all this up."

"Me? That's in the Q&A, but if you must know, I'm a nerd. A big nerd. I can tell you what Wedge Antilles' name means in Rylothian. I can tell you who, and what, exactly a Maiar is, name eight uses for a mass effect off the top of my head,tell you what a keter is, and what it means for you, and I have researched the thrust-to-weight ratio of an unladen swallow… I collected useless information, because I loved movies, books, cartoons and especially videogames with a passion like nothing else… I'm also from another world, that will also be in the Q&A… and when I wake up in a half-nelson and am dragged off to a one professor Ozpin's office only to realize, holy shit, my favourite anime characters are staring me right in the face wondering who this crazy man is, and, let's face it, I'm bag-of-cats crazy, ranging from a 4 to a 7/10 on the crazy-o-meter, depending on my mood and if I'm in the middle of an episode of irrationality, I'm halfway torn between worshipping them and cold-and-clinically attempting to lessen or avert the blows random fate dumps on their doorstep, because if I'm recognizing people as actually the anime characters I'm so fond of, you know shit can and will hit the fan eventually. I am a crazy fanboy of your nieces, essentially, and I want to be a friend so desperately… I would kill _for_ them, and I have tonight, but I would sooner turn the blade on myself than hurt them, even inadvertently… and trust me, part of my insanity extends from the fact that I will probably lynch myself for fucking up, bad, before the mob ever gets me."

Qrow wasn't happy with my answer "So… you've been planning this a while?"

"Rather, I had a bunch of cool ideas when I got the place, and as I ran into a need for specifics I made them up as I went along… and if I wasn't informed enough to make a definite decision, I attempted to become informed enough, generally by studying textbooks I bought off a man I would trust only so far as to acquire strange and possibly illicit goods from other worlds, that my semblance took the liberty of introducing to me… details and specifics of my semblance are in the Q&A… but yeah, turns out my bullshit-do is better than my bushido." I joked

Qrow looked unamused

"Let's just wait here for the others to arrive."


	56. Answers and Exposition

Cobalt stepped out into the center of the room, the nineteen other occupants watching him intently as he sat down in a large armchair at the far end of the room

Teams RWBY, JNPR and CFVY were here, along with Penny, Autumn, Oobleck, Port, Qrow, Goodwitch and Ironwood.

"If you would, please, sit. I have a _lot_ to divulge and explain tonight, and the sooner we can get started, the sooner I can finish… feel free to grab tea, biscuits and what have you before you do. This is going to take a while."

I waited for everyone to settle.

"Welcome, everyone. Thank you for coming to this little Q&A session… first thing's first however: a simple trust exercise."

I had people's curiosity

"First, a pair of trained Dust Sprites, to sap my defences, and depower my buffs… make me vulnerable." I said as a pair of dust sprites flitted down from their 'nest' on the ceiling and perched on my shoulders, where they proceeded to drain my aura and most of my health.

I was pale and shaking when the procedure was done, but I waved off the people getting up to help me.

"No, no… this is intended… because the second part is the button." I said

I snapped my fingers and the coffee table's centre parted to reveal a new surface armed with a big red button under a number of guards. As that raised, several laser dots appeared and found their way to my chest.

"The simple fact of the matter is that I have suddenly come out holding enough power to destroy everything you hold dear in a matter of seconds… though, for obvious reasons, I don't want to. Now, I've drunk several hours worth of truth serum, and cannot and will not lie to you… all it takes is a few questions and I could tell you about all my deepest, darkest secrets that I've been keeping under wraps: fetishes, political views, secret desires, great shames, it's all there. If, for whatever reason, I paint myself as a monster, and even after listening to my reasoning, you cannot conscience my continued existence… I am so very vulnerable right now… Joe Schmoe has more hitpoints than I do… and there are three auto-turrets waiting only for someone to press that button, armed with enough firepower to destroy any one of my creations between them, short of the Titans. I will not survive the blast."

"You do realise that is entirely unnecessary?" Goodwitch said

"Yes."

"You're still going to-"

"I would rather die than become the kind of monster I am trying to destroy, Glynda. A sentiment I am sure, you, Qrow and Jim can agree with." I said "He who fights monsters should take care that he himself does not become a monster. My life is in your hands, do with it what you will. I feel reasonably certain you will not press the button, but I also know that I will be the last person to know I've become an irredeemable monster, so for safety's sake, tolerate the big red button."

"Now then, let's start with some absolute basics, for the sake of the Adults and Penny." I said "Let's start with where I'm from: a little country called Australia… where is it? Why have you never heard of it? Well, Argus, if you would be so kind."

The large holoscreen lit up behind me with a soundwave. "Of course, sir" Argus said, sounding like VEGA from nuDOOM, before launching into a description of Earth, showing off several countries, their histories, and their cultures.

* * *

"That, is where I grew up. Somewhat depressing, somewhat hope inspiring, right?" I said "Earth, Terra, the Hub, whatever you want to call it, it's where I remember growing up."

Oobleck looked the most excited "I'll link you to historical files if you want Oobleck; we've got archaeological records for the past… I think it's about 4,000 years or so, dating back to ancient Sumeria and Babylon and the days where a flint-knappped spear was state of the art. I'm sure you'd love it."

"Indeed I would, Cobalt." Oobleck said

"Anyways, this is all relevant for one thing" I said as Argus swapped to a familiar opening sequence, starring familiar faces, set to the song 'This Will Be The Day'.

The look of shock on everyone's faces was palpable. "This here is the source of a lot of intel. Where, when, who, what, how, even a lot of why."

"Why didn't you show us this earlier? We could've stopped this in its tracks!" Ironwood demanded

"Firstly, because you would have dismissed this very easily as something I made and whatnot… in fact, that's still an easy way to dismiss all of this… but, basically, when I first awoke and saw my favourite cartoon characters staring back at me, wondering where this crazy man had dropped from, I was caught between all but worshipping them and averting this-"

The screen cut to a scene from Volume 3 with people running from Grimm, Atlesian Bots and White Fang.

"Needless to say, I was a very distant 'friend' to most of them. When I first arrived, the latest we'd gotten was the Breach, however I had a connection to home" I produced my mobile phone for emphasis "and through that I was able to view Volume 3 as it came out. Needless to say, Beacon's budget for training dummies went up on certain days… Penny, Pyrrha, if you need to leave the room, feel free."

There were several flashes of several… uncomfortable scenes from Volume 3

"As I watched, I changed the mission goal: I'd need help, powerful help I could trust, in large enough numbers to hold back the shitstorm, and I'd need to dismantle Cinder's operation." I said "This was suddenly on a much larger scope than I'd ever realised before, and Atlas wouldn't help, Ozpin was powerless to stop Cinder, the Police were, frankly, incompetents, and I wasn't going to trust randoms I'd found in some kind of PMC for the sheer fact that Cinder might catch wind and not do what I expected her to do... people talk and Cinder had a very comprehensive spy network. I was justified in my paranoia"

Several blueprints flashed across the screen "The Templar are shamelessly stolen from my other favourite fictional universes, using designs I've all but ripped from science fiction settings such as Starcraft, Warhammer 40,000, Metal Gear, Zoids and more… I might as well, I mean, this shit looks like it blows Remnan stuff out the water, right? The Templar are designed to pack the punch of a hunter in large groups, and be numerous enough to bring those groups to bear more often than not in any theatre the Grimm want to open and then some... the same general philosphy as Atlas, but more fully embraced and better realised as humanity creating human monsters to fight back actual monsters, because normal humans die in droves against the kind of menace that threatens all of us on Remnant."

"How... how did you hide all of this up here?" Port asked

I sighed "Okay, so this is going to go into my semblance. Sit down and buckle up, you're about to learn more about videogames than you ever cared to know beforehand." I said

* * *

Ironwood stared at me

"You said there was another" he asked

"Neo Politan." I said "Yang might remember her from the train."

Yang blinked "Her?"

"Yes. Her potential is matched only by my own." I explained "Though it mostly seems to be squandered on numerous acts of theft and the occasional act of murder… charges she and her accomplice won't be facing up here for their pivotal roles in ensuring as few people died in the invasion as they did when they both defected and kept Cinder's hack-tool/AI out of Atlas' Robot control system… as far as I'm concerned, they've saved most everyone in Vale… and if he hadn't defected when he did, I'd had reduced him to a greasy smear."

Penny muttered a soft 'ow', before gasping.

People turned to look at what could've surprised Penny and quickly turned back to me.

"Penny, can you show me? The turrets are made to eliminate me if I get out of this chair and try to pull a runner." I said

Penny held up a bleeding finger

"Ah… that… okay, time to go over what a familiar is." I said

At everyone's sounds of confusion I said "I repurposed the familiar spell. I studied the crap out of magic to strip down the spell that produced Lisica from a fragment of my soul so that there was a magical way of re-embodying someone without stuffing them in a robot, after I nabbed a few soultraps for my friends to hang around their necks. The spell doesn't create automatons... Penny, you're a 'real' girl now… not that you weren't a 'real' person before, just now you're not a robot."

Everyone looked at Penny, then back at me, the mix of emotions visible on their face, even if I recognised none of them

"It should be mentioned that the re-embodiment might have some side-effects: the spell made a familiar's body in a form familiar to the soul I was throwing into it… you're functionally human, and if medlab is saying anything there are precious few anomalies in the bio-function scans." I said "Basically, I'd look into teasing out the magic now coursing through your veins, potentially seeing if you can cast magic like Lisica and I… and also, considering Lisica's contribution, I'd expect a vastly increased lifespan."

Pyrrha, Penny and Autumn each shared a glance.

"I am a mad scientist, playing with forces beyond my ken that I was not supposed to be aware of, much less play with." I said before laughing "and though I'm just being dramatic, I figured you'd appreciate not having to actually meet the Reaper again soon."

"T-thanks."

"I know it'll take some time to get used to things, or even reconcile… if you need some time on your own, I can arrange a few different houses, or transport dirtside to any location you want." I said "Same offer goes for all of you… though if you were hoping to escape the Templar, they're about to become very ubiquitous across the kingdoms"

"With whose permission?"

"With the permission granted by being stupid fast and arresting hundreds of white fang in less than a day, where modern police forces allowed what just happened to happen." I snapped back at Ironwood "You want something done about the people responsible for the greatest atrocity since the Great War? Shut up and let me work my magic."

I calmed down and leaned back in my chair

"I have plans for the Templar: they're meant to be protectors of everyone and everything with a soul, slayers of grimm and a defensive bulwark of steel, skill and wrath, and you've seen how they excel in that regard… the RAY project is supposed to project my will to the younger generations, forming a corps of guardians dedicated to the little people of the planet: aquatic lifeguards, bodyguards, telecommunications, and a constant, abiding companion. They're also supposed to end abusive homes as well, particularly since I also want to release a mob of 'strays' into each of the kingdoms for those kids with nothing to just adopt. The Handy project is supposed to make Jinn Industries and Jinn R&D, both owned by yours truly, household names with a line of affordable robotic butlers… of course, the same 'protect and serve' mentality applies… I might move zero-point energy down in a decade or two, if people have treated those forays well."

The Adults furrowed their brows

"Best of all: Argus, can you tell me about the little thing I did for all templar?"

"Which one, sir?"

"Eyes" was all I said

"I see… All templar livestream their audio-visual feeds to a publicly accessible server, as a countermeasure against war crimes and police brutality. You will not see a templar beach many of the terms laid out in Terran meetings regarding the rules of war, such as the geneva convention, which protects medics, prisoners of war, civilians, bans bio-chemical weapons, bans acts such as looting, destroying undefended towns and habitations, pressing people of occupied nations into military service, especially against their own country and collective punishment. Templar have these conventions taught to them at some of the earliest points of their training and are informed that any breach of them will result in a summary memory-wipe."

"I am fighting Monsters" I restated "I am killing monsters by the dozen. This code of conduct is the 'what not to do to avoid becoming a monster'."

"That's… pretty comprehensive"

"Well, the conventions and laws had to be after our second world war." I admitted

At the shock and horror on the faces of the Remnans I countered "With no Grimm, we had no common enemy… and without that, humanity falls apart into pointless tribalism… eventually, humanity gets very, very good at being bad… I've read about the sorts of things they did, that actually happened out there." I said, shuddering as images of a young girl coated in burning napalm floated across my mind. "The less said, the better… it should be said that there hasn't been actual, proper peace on Earth ever. With thousands of sovereign nations, each with long and storied histories, some stretching back further than recorded history, someone's always been at war with someone. It's… depressing… and with hate running that deep, for that long… indescribable things, not because I can't, I can, but because I don't want to…"

I shook myself of the influence of those darker thoughts and returned to the present company

"Anywho… I've divulged the secrets of my semblance, my plans, who and what I know… I suppose I have two last things I want to show you." I said "A cartoon filled with intel, that has now just expired, and someone I want you to meet."

"Who would this someone be?" Qrow asked

"Well, I needed a second-in-command, and not just Lisica, I needed a second opinion, someone to help ground me when I got all worked up… and I wanted to push the boundaries of what I was doing with the Templar." I said

"Another robot?" Qrow asked

"Another person, Ironwood. Soul or no, they are very intelligent beings, and I would thank you for treating them as such… anywho, I may or may not have gone behind your back and asked Penny's Dad how he did it." I said

The implications were clear

I put a finger to my ear, activating the comm bead.

"Argent, that's your cue."

Talos obliged

"Everyone, I would like you to meet Argent Talos… my lieutenant, my advisor, my magnum opus and, if he's willing, my successor."

Talos stumbled when I said 'successor', spluttering at that.

"Your what?" Talos asked

I smiled at that reaction "Feel free to say no and all, but I'm not sticking around forever. A depressing truth, but one all the same. You would be my first and potentially best choice for heading up Outer Heaven and the Templar after me. You proved you could lead when you fought the Salamander at the head of my men… I don't intend to leave for a long time, but then again, I've got to deal with-"

I pointed upwards at the viewscreen which swapped to a picture of Salem

"Her. I am not looking forward to the final showdown versus Salem, and there's a good chance that I don't make it out the other end. It is a contingency I must be prepared for… I haven't told about my plans for you before now, because I didn't want to bias the tests or make a promise I couldn't keep… and if I were at all able to get out this chair without immediately dying, I'd… give you a hug or something, I am that goddamned proud of you."

I saw Penny and the others look between me and Talos

Talos was dressed almost like an Atlesian specialist, with a neatly pressed dress uniform, complete with my signature longcoat in white, black and gold and a crown-shaped visor raised over the hairline of his black hair that had been spiked upwards and a set of floating dagger sheaths hovering around his waist. He was tall and lean, and I knew he could hover above the ground at will, making him seem even taller and more imposing.

His weapon of choice was a powered shortspear with an integrated shuriken catapult, which was designed to throw plasma-coated shuriken in short bursts.

"So… you're saying…" Ruby trailed off, between Talos and myself

"I am. I haven't been the best father figure in the past three months, but I do intend to spend actual time with him now that we're in the eye of the storm." I said "And since he was created in much the same process as Penny, barring some of the technical upgrades regarding locomotion and the pages of script and poetry I've engraved all over his insides with runes, I thought that he and she might be able to help one another and-"

My trail of thought was derailed by a large golden flash heralding the arrival of a certain someone.

"Aurum?" I asked, craning my neck to see around the armchair

"You have given us one hell of a headache."

"Triple-aspect Archon, right? Yeah, I wouldn't worry about a rage against the machine just yet. Though I would like to spit in the eye of whoever did co-opt me, I would also like to shake their hand. They've done more good than harm, I think." I said

"Cobalt, what the hell is this?" Ironwood asked

"This, General, would be Aurum, my case manager with the people who put up the framework I just spent half an hour explaining with that multimedia presentation" I said "She spent some time sending me new shit to stress test… I'm guessing the space station caused lag or something, so they wanted me to come along so they could find all the little holes in the code and patch the shit out of them… they're also the reason I can't abuse instant dungeons to duplicate items any more… and also probably why I haven't found potions that offer permanent boosts."

Aurum looked at me with what I assumed was an unamused glare

"Aurum, you and Metasoft have my word that I'll be curbing the chaotic tendencies from now on. I'm bound permanently to laws, oaths and creeds now… the tenets of which I'm still stress testing myself."

"That was not what we had in mind with the Unity skill, and you know it." Aurum said

I shrugged "Meh… if something that warrants an archon's power to kill shows up, I'll keep using it… but believe it or not, I'm actually where I want to be. Inari told me the stakes: I can't do shit if I ascend… and as enticing as the idea of making my one great act of ascension blotting Salem out of existence, I would much rather stand on the frontlines as an exceptional warrior, rather than requiring that someone give their life so I can talk to my friends."

"What?"

"I asked Inari why she couldn't help me, turns out Gods are all sworn to this non-intervention thing. They can sponsor me with power, spells, artefacts, companions and more, but they themselves are not allowed to interfere with anything without someone merging with a fragment of their essence and becoming an Avatar." I said "and then it's like two souls co-operating to pilot the same body and command the same power… I'm fucked up enough as a trinary being. Let's not add 'at risk of burning themselves out on divine power' to the list."

Aurum regarded me harshly

 _ **You have been penalized, status effect 'Veins of Fire' has been applied for 24hrs.**_

I didn't have much time to process that before I felt my blood heat up to what should've been an impossible degree. I didn't take damage, mercifully, but I still felt my veins glow with the heat, as every inch of my body felt like it was on fire.

"Talos" I croaked out as I felt my throat dry as the raw heat caused everything to evaporate "get the- get the turrets"

Talos rushed forward and entered a code into the keypad on the far side of the room as I did everything to keep my weight on the pressure pad.

I collapsed and felt the carpet catch fire, causing the overhead sprinklers to start spraying me. The water helped ease my pain as it hissed and spat on my skin. My clothing had been proofed against a great many effects, and was mercifully insulated and non-combustible as a standard effect.

The pain was excruciating, and I writhed and squirmed in pain, reduced to little more than the animal parts of my brain as I tried, desperately to escape the pain.

When it came, I embraced the dark of unconsciousness as the pain flooded my brain.


	57. Reawakening

**Reviews- Husebad: I am aware of Talos from the Elder Scrolls series, the man who achieved Chim and wiped out the Jungles of Tamriel in the past, present and future simultaneously by lucid-dreaming real life so that they never were or would be… . Argent Talos is named for androids like Talos in the Talos principle, or the bronze giant Talos in Jason and the Argonauts. His full name comes from a quick search on wikipedia for 'android names' and a look on a periodic table.**

* * *

"He's unconscious, we have to do something!" Ironwood said as Cobalt began to still

"Intensive care tanks in the Medbay! This way!" Talos said, grabbing his father/commanding officer and charging down the hallway whilst simultaneously putting out a medical emergency alert on Lisica and Magnus.

The rush towards the Medbay was frantic and Talos quickly threw Cobalt into the tank, keeping his head above water as he figured out how to keep the mask from melting onto his face.

* * *

The system told me I'd been unconscious for 72 hours.

I'd also completed, like, two dozen quests.

 _ **You have failed the quest: Unmarred Beauty  
You have failed the quest: Ashes to Ash  
You have completed the quest: New World Order  
You have completed the quest: The Bull's Horns  
You have completed the quest: I Don't See a Princess  
You have completed the quest: Cinder's Fall  
You have completed the quest: Immortal Phoenixes  
You have completed the questline: Volume 3**_

 _ **You have gained 3,480,950 XP; 50,670,000 Lien.**_

 _ **You have advanced to level 145**_

My last memories of consciousness were those of burning agony as my blood… did something.

I looked around and found myself in an ICT in the medbay… swimming amongst flakes and even sheets of what observe revealed to be boiled skin.

Fighting my bile down, I wasted no time in swimming upwards as the automatic sensors quietly fired off an automated message to anyone who had asked when I was admitted.

I noticed that my mask was attached with the heat-resistant tape. Considering what little I did remember of my condition before I passed out, that made sense… still, removing it was painful, and I ended up waxing my chin and nose, as well as around the base of my skull.

Talos entered the room "Father, I see you're awake"

"...Since when did you start calling me father?" I wondered aloud "I suppose I don't much care: if Polendia's Penny's Da- Pater, then it stands to reason… meh."

I smirked at my nerdy little bit of alliteration, even if I had to resort to Latin to pull it off as I pulled myself out of my tank and laid on the grating as I air-dried off.

Talos quirked a brow at me

"Well, I suppose I'm going to have to get used to calling you 'son' now, won't I? What a wonderful family I have here, a magical accident, a bound abomination, the world's most highly advanced android… It probably says something that I wouldn't trade it for the world, but I'm not sure what."

"You're babbling again, dad." Talos said

"I know, Argent… but that fire-veins thing was just fucking horrible, y'know? I think I deserve a little delirium" I said "Any new developments I should know about?"

"Other than your blood appears to be liquid steel, nothing new to report" Talos replied

I quirked an eyebrow before producing a small curved knife and cutting across my thumb with the blade, noting how little Aura seemed to resist the cut

Sure enough, a thick silver liquid began to drip out instead of the normal red. I watched as it pooled, beaded and dripped towards the floor. Anticipating the drop, I willed it to stop falling and it did, hanging there as a perfect sphere of steel.

"Huh… fancy that…" I said

I reached out with my will towards the uncomfortable grating and found it unresponsive. I 'knew' it 'heard' me, but I realised I would need to take the form of the aspect of steel to really do something with it.

I checked my stats and skills page and found, curiously, that I no longer registered as human, not even a meta-human for my mutations and cyborg parts.

It said I was a 'kin'... which immediately evoked images of what little I knew of Bloodborne lore, stating the Kin, such as Lumenwood and Celestial Emissaries, to be lesser kin of the Great Old Ones, who were the Elder Gods of Cthulhu lore in all but name

The solution struck me as simple but elegant: prevent me from ascending forcibly, by kicking me upstairs. I'd been forced to shoot for godhood too early and fallen way short, and now I was lesser kin to actual gods. It was a power boost, as I had a large supply of metal I could shape and control telekinetically, and nothing said 'fuck your shit' like a localized tornado of 00 buckshot, and there were especially dance-like forms for penny's sword-things that my blood could now facilitate… but at the same time, the idea that I was something other than an enhanced human, felt chilling… though I felt oddly at peace with being fucked up beyond all recognition, and for once I couldn't wholly and solely thank Gamer's Mind for that one.

I pushed the issue aside. What's done was done. I was a kin now… and fucking hell would being an eldritch abomination take getting used to. I considered the possibility that Cobalt Jinn was always an eldritch abomination, just one that was as far from the eldritch truth as possible.

The important part was that so long as my ambitions, ideals and love for humanity never died, I'd hopefully stay the course I'd charted. I still felt, looked and talked human, and whilst this was unexpected, I'd adapt as best as I was able until I had some time I could set aside for angst. Right now though? I had to catch up. 72 hours was a lot of time to miss, especially in such a seminal ptime where I was practically writing history

I checked myself and figured I'd air-dried enough. I kicked myself to my feet and donned the usual 'long-coat cuirassier' outfit.

A ping at the door alerted me to the arrival of Blake and Ruby.

"Hey guys. I guess you got the ping." I said

Both nodded in response "Are you okay?" Ruby asked

"Well, yeah." I said

"But?" Blake asked

"That obvious?" I asked rhetorically "It seems I've been forced to change species to prevent me from ascending to godhood, proper… I'm what's known as a 'Kin'... the particular species is… oh you have got to be fucking with me."

"What?"

"According to this, I'm a unique type called a, I-shit-you-not, a Jinn." I said

Blake raised her eyebrow

"Says so right here… also says here that I'm unified soul and body though… which explains the blood actually… upshot is that restoring my mana will also restore my health… and I'll recover better over time… downside is that I no longer receive the full defensive bonuses of Aura… rather, the damage is now split between health and mana… mostly, that just means shooting me produces a lot of blood."

"That seems…"

"Like an absolutely massive change that I should be having a massive freakout over? Yeah, it does… it's just that I ascended to almost-godhood recently, and pissed off other almost-gods… it's honestly more amazing I'm not some greasy smear and didn't have my save invalidated and become forced to start again. The last time this kinda magical accident shit happened I picked up slit-pupiled eyes… which I'll admit I wanted for the longest time. Don't judge. This isn't such a big change, I just bleed an oddball colour and can turn wounds into sources for weapons, since I can telekinetically control my own blood."

Blake looked unamused

"Anywho, I've recovered for better or worse… I'll go release an official statement or eight and get this show back on the road." I said

"Cobalt, have you noticed certain similarities between yourself and Salem?" Blake asked

I paused, curious "Do tell"

"For one, your eyes, the fact that you're both megalomaniacal superhuman beings hell-bent on destruction, so you can remake the world in your image... also she has Slit-pupil eyes" Blake said, listing off points.

I blinked in surprise and said "You… have a very good point, one I can't really refute either… look, I don't claim I'm a saint who can do no wrong… I already feel I've done wrong by you by just ignoring you guys in favour of all this… but the thing about good people is that they mean well… they just don't always end up doing well."

"And your rhetoric about killing the White Fang?"

"Listen, I don't give a shit if you're fucking the Queen of England- so long as it's consensual- but there is a line in the sand… the thing about Justice, the ideal true justice I strive for, is that it doesn't care who, merely what, how and why. The Ends, Means and Motive… and so long as none of those three cross the line in the sand, we have no quarrel. People are still hunting Nazi's, Members of the Nationalist-Socialist party of Germany, circa 1920-45, back where I'm from for their hand in the systematic slaughter of over 6 million people."

"Six… why? How?"

"Gays, Jews, Dark-skinned humans, Political enemies, you name it, if it wasn't favourable to their conservative, narrow-minded view or social eugenics program, it was gassed, burned, shot, poisoned, and/or experimented on… I did say Terrans can be absolutely shitty people when they want to be, and downright subhuman at best... The nightmares of that war nearly happened again; would've happened if I hadn't stepped in. I did not cast the first stone, Blake, neither did I start the argument, but I intend to end it, and let anyone know that fuckery of that level is not going to be tolerated, ever"

"And in the process-"

"If you would look, Blake, you would also see Templars stationed in Faunus neighbourhoods, stopping violent reprisals from narrow-minded idiots, by force if necessary. There is a lot of might and muscle up here, and the name of the game is to use it, _responsibly_ , to _prevent needless death_ , destruction or mayhem. Yes there will be bloodshed, that is what happens when someone attempts to change the world, yes I killed your Ex, he was in the middle of orchestrating unspeakable acts, that I will never conscience, tolerate or whatnot, ever. The White Fang has been-"

A cough from Talos caught that train of thought

"-Will be formally ordered to step down and disband, or it will be forcibly disbanded for them. They are not the just socio-political movement you joined, and are now a symbol of hate, violence and segregation. A symbol with no place in the world of tomorrow." I said "Perhaps you'd like to help by pointing out human supremacist organizations that I can also burn down. I plan to be impartial, but very, very harsh on racially motivated violence… the general gist of my policy is 'don't make me come down there'."

* * *

"So, Peoples of Remnant… hi. It's me, Cobalt Jinn, aka: The man behind the giant city floating above the sky for the past three and a half days that's responsible for a great many acts of violence and threats levelled against people who would disturb the peace and/or act out on racial hate and violence. Rest assured, we hope to end that as soon as possible, however we also will not simply abandon people we've been protecting from aggression and hate motivated by the recent terrorist attack and counter-insurgency operations that followed. Many of you may notice that we have made a string of raids and arrests as we bundle up anyone associated with the White Fang. I wish to confirm that if you lay down your weapons and surrender into Templar custody, I can guarantee your safety, and no prisoner of war will come to harm under my care.

Okay, so, other than that, I have a few issues and complaints I want to try to address here... first off, let me say that no, we are not invading anyone, nor will we be trying to conquer any of the kingdoms. The people of Remnant have had more than enough strife to last a- well, a _really_ long time, and adding to that is not what we're here to do and I would wish to reiterate that the Templar are designed as a steel bulwark to put between upstanding folk and those who would hand you to the grimm on a silver platter.

Anyone with information on Cinder Fall's operations or any of her associates before the invasion is asked to step forward for reduced sentences… otherwise, we'll be paying you a visit real soon.

As for the rest of you, I would encourage that you inquire about a visit to Outer Heaven. The view is absolutely gorgeous, and I can say with 100% certainty that it is the safest city anywhere… and I promise, we don't bite… much.

Lastly, I would like to announce the first push of the great crusade to reclaim more land for the peoples of Remnant, and to create and protect towns and cities in previously inhospitable locations, as a show of my goodwill, and that I can, in fact, build things in addition to destroying them. Rest assured, I will do my utmost to keep the black menace off the walls and away from our borders.

That seems to be all for today to the best of my knowledge… I am told that my second in command has already delivered a few messages… so, I suppose my parting message is to never fear the big men of iron are there to help you… We're here to help in any way we can, in order to secure peace; true, lasting peace for future generations to enjoy. We're all in this together, like it or not, and it is only by working together that we may see a true peace on all Remnant."

"Well, it's done. We're officially a new major faction" I said as the seeker probe, which was essentially a floating camera, a set of manipulator limbs and a stealth package all wrapped up in a package the size of coke can, minus the limbs, spun its head to indicate the camera was off, saluted and floated away.

"You weren't exactly professional sounding" Ironwood criticized "not at the start"

"I'm not a professional, I'm just a pleb working beyond normal means… I have appeared cold, clinical, and even beyond the ken of normal people, and that is not an image I want to cultivate, even if I am… normal humans want normal humans leading them, and I want people to know I have their best interests at heart, and the easiest way to convince people I hold the common good at heart is to appear normal." I said "now I just need to remember to keep the complaints department open."

"That is all well and good, but I would prefer someone who knew what they were doing" Ironwood said

"The two are not mutually exclusive… but yes, you're right… so I'll be looking to build and create a lot in the coming days… retake good, arable land and possibly Mountain Glenn, create new villages and secure the old ones and the like… take my shitload of troops, upgrade it to four fucktons, and put a fuckton in and around the kingdoms to purge grimm and, as I said, retake Remnant… because being 100% safe and rich and well cared for isn't enough, and my conscience won't let me just abandon people to the grimm: I'd never forgive myself… So I'm putting something behind the hunters to give their efforts more substance and lasting effect… Like Atlas, but with much bigger guns."

Ironwood furrowed his brows

"I also plan to train, arm and equip anyone willing to volunteer for the big guns. The Militades are basically a recruiting and licensing program for an Atlas-style Hunter Academy."

"Licensing?"

"If you think that I am just going to sell my guns to Killblood the murderer, you have another think coming. With great power comes great responsibility, and I want to make sure I'm only selling to responsible militaries and PMC, and not just some militia. Remnant is short on people, they don't need some death dealer flooding the market with cheap WMD's and Powered Armour."

"Powered Armour?"

I giggled "you'll love this, come, I'll show you"


	58. Long Haul Soon To Come

"Are you… sure about this?" Ironwood said, eyeing the black jumpsuit with in-built mechanical exoskeleton I was wearing as a number of armatures bolted several armoured plates around my person, the end result appearing similar to a custom version of Halo's Mjolnir MkVII armour.

After all, one must pay tribute to RWBY's roots somewhere.

"My Powered armour is hermetically sealed by default with a proprietary environmental insulation suite that would allow you to wade through lava and, though not recommended procedure, it is designed to protect the user from an orbital re-entry on its own, if you don't mind digging a massive crater or cracking pavement on the way down" I told Ironwood "I understand that Atlas is, understandably, anxious about you… your Drop Pod will hit like a literal truck crash when it hits dirt, but both you and it should be completely fine; shaken, but not stirred.. Feel free to keep it after if you want or need a memento. We plan to install landing pads for these things, and possibly several space elevators to get people up and down from here… Those will need some room, but we'll worry about that once you're back in Atlas."

"And you? What are you doing if you're 'suiting up'."

"I'm going to set up a massive base in the middle of Bumfuck, Nowhere and train up specialist Schwertbrudder."

"I'm sorry, did you say-"

"Swordbrothers… I named it the Templar Order, I might as well make it a proper homage, and get some decent-looking Captains and sergeants out of the deal. I will be picking people's brains for specialist styles, and already have a loadout from what I like to call the 'James Ironwood school of badassery' Planned out."

"Come Again?"

"I saw you fight a beowolf in the cartoon. Shit was so awesome, I'm devoting a squad to brawling how I saw you do it." I said

"I'm… honoured, I think." Ironwood said, unsure.

"Glad you think so." I said, waving my hand, which had a holographic blue gauntlet appear around it before Ironwood's one-man drop pod began to close "Have a nice trip. See you next Fall."

The expression Ironwood's face adopted at my horrible pun was so worth whatever pain he was going to put me through.

A large armature loaded the pod into a large rocket sled on the outside of the energy barrier keeping the air in. The sled, in turn, aligned itself to have the pod lithobrake on the outskirts of Atlas before activating and launching Ironwood out the airlock in his own private vomit comet.

Meanwhile, I doffed my greatcoat, stowing it, before sliding a new helmet over my head and felt the seals connect around my jaw. Technically it was a sci-fi equivalent to a visored barbute helmet, which I found provided ample aerodynamic qualities for my purposes. After checking the synthetic blue feather, I walked right up to the barrier, took a deep breathe to steady myself, took one final step and once again one-upped Felix Baumgartner by about 10K feet.

I felt the artificial gravity rapidly lose its grip on me as it inadvertently yanked me towards Remnant, before my HUD lit up with a 'pipe' of squares that I was supposed to direct myself through to reach my destination.

I lit up the rockets in my boots and strapped to my back and directed myself for the first leg of the journey before switching them off after only a short burst and letting inertia and gravity carry me, since there was no air to slow me down. Since it was used for space-engineering, I much preferred Isaac Clarke's propulsion to Tony Stark's, since it was hands-free… which let me make silly gestures and pretend I was Ironman anyway, in addition to welding segments of superstructure together.

Zombieland Rule 32: Enjoy the little things.

* * *

"So, Where's Cobalt?" Ruby asked

"Oh, off fulfilling his grand design. The Templar are actually very unfinished." Lisica answered, sipping at the juice in her glass as she flicked through the TV channels the Satellites were siphoning to Cobalt's 'baby'.

"Unfinished?" Weiss asked

"Cobalt got the fundamentals down before he had to use them, but the polish, the personality… where are the Swordbrothers? The Phoenix Guard? The Salamanders? The Blood Angels? The White Scars? Cobalt's army lacks elite units with specialized training, and they don't perform as well as they should because of that… and Cobalt's gone on a day-trip to create a base to train them" Lisica explained "Since the most magic most of them will get might be a runeword engraved on their breastplate and an Iron Halo, and most of what I bring to the table is magic, Cobalt's having me sit this one out."

"I see… is it at all wise to make Cobalt's insane creations- no offence- more dangerous?" Weiss asked

"You people- no offence- keep asking that, and again, we'd like to point you at the Grimm, who are keeping Humanity on the brink of extinction… we have operator-chassis bots using much more tame armouries than the Templar that are meant for civilian suppression and counter-insurgency… you might've seen some of them" Lisica said, waving her hand which caused another holographic gauntlet to appear which then turned the TV to a news broadcast, showing several tall, human-like figures in white-black-gold painted segmented armour resembling what Lisica knew as Samus' Varia suit escorting several people wearing White Fang uniforms into a waiting thunderhawk.

Weiss watched as they loaded the White Fang onto the transport before Weiss said "How come I didn't-"

Weiss's question was answered when each one pressed a button on her gauntlet and disappeared from view.

"For surgical strike operatives, we really wanted to exploit personal cloaking fields." Lisica explained "We call them 'Ghosts', and we're damn proud of them, working as intended and even keeping casualties down to a bare minimum… barring the really aggressive ones and the ones that take hostages… we take special care of that last group."

"Special Care?"

"Examples." Lisica said "Let's leave it at that."

Weiss nodded, swallowing nervously.

"Guys? can I get a hand? Umbra's giving me trouble" Blake said

"Umbra?" Lisica asked

Lisica raised an eyebrow "Which kind?"

Lisica's question was answered when a small navy blue streak sprung from the hallway, pouncing on Blake, aiming itself for her bow

Blake, for her part, shadow-cloned out of the way, causing a most peculiar animal to sail into the living room.

The creature, overall, resembled a large blue cat with purple highlights, though there was plenty of other influences apparent, with a parrot-like beak, scaled bat-like wing-arm hybrids like Uruloki's wings, red streaks running from its eyes to the insides of its bat-like ears…

Umbra took one look at Lisica and then promptly vanished from sight.

Lisica blinked in surprised and asked "Since when did we have a Lucent Nargacuga cub?"

"You mean Cobalt didn't order them?" Weiss asked

"We found a box that had it and two others just outside the door" Ruby said "Since Cobalt wasn't around, we decided we'd take care of them."

"No we- Cobalt wasn't keen on having more monsters around, since Cobalt already had Uruloki… that's the golden dragon's name." Lisica explained "Which means that this is either an event we weren't notified about… or possibly that someone donated them."

"Donated?"

"We had someone send us our first samples of Adamantium as an anonymous donation, chances are someone sent this little guy like that." Lisica said

Umbra pounced on Lisica, claws out, causing the Kitsune to pause at the shock of the sharp claws digging into her lap

Umbra quickly learned that wasn't a smart idea as a number of sparks and tiny flames erupted from Lisica's thighs. Umbra yelped and quickly retreated to Blake, who quickly found that she had a new scarf made of scared kitten-dragon.

"Are you alright?" Ruby asked

"Yeah, yeah. Umbra probably got a fright though" Lisica dismissed "I'd check to see if her paws were singed"

"What?"

"Cobalt and I were changed when Aurum lost her temper… He's made of metal, I'm made of fire." Lisica said "On that note, if Cobalt ever loses his temper, see if he shatters like glass"

Lisica got a number of strange looks

"Loses his temper? Like how tempering steel makes it flexible enough to use?"

Ruby and Weiss both facepalmed. Blake would have too, but she was too busy dealing with a baby puma-dragon to do much about a bad pun.

Lisica would have continued, but was interrupted by a large insect that glowed blue that left her was wondering if Zelda fairies were packageable when a series of small barks caused Lisica to instinctively revert to her small fox form.

Lisica recovered from the disorientating effects of rapidly changing sizes like that in time to see the bug flit to a small blue wolf with overdeveloped, arm-like front paws and many bony yellow nubs and tufts of white fur running along its body, leading to a paddle-shaped tail.

Ruby giggled at the sight of Lisica changing into a fox at a simple dog's bark.

"Sorry, he seemed so restless all of a sudden" Pyrrha said, stepping out and seeing the fox on the couch

"Would you be Akatsuki or Kasumi?" Pyrrha asked

Lisica changed to her human-like form again

"Oh! Lisica! I didn't realise you were here" Pyrrha exclaimed

"It's alright… I'm only just learning which monsters we've got up here now." Lisica said "So far I've seen the Nargacuga cub and the Zinogre pup… what was the third one?"

"It's this weird white dragon snake thing with purple fur" Pyrrha described

Lisica's brow furrowed "that sounds really familiar"

"Team CFVY are taking care of it. It seems to really like Velvet for some reason" Ruby said

"Hey! Gat back here!" Coco shouted down the hallway, before a loud 'squeak' of something slipping on a smooth floor and a loud thud echoed down the hallway

Eventually a small white eastern dragon with an elongated face, purple fur creating a 'brush' running from its chest out to the tips of its tail and a 'frill' made of six brightly coloured, translucent fins that also adorned its back in two small rows slid out from behind Pyrrha between her legs on a pink trail of a liquid that constantly produced floating bubbles, wriggling like a fish to propel itself on this trail of bubble detergent.

"That would be a Mizutsune" Lisica said "Otherwise known as a bubble fox wyvern… It's going to be nice to have monsters around I can actually stand to be around"

"What's wrong with Uruloki?" Blake asked

"Dragons and Kitsune have an age-old feud, and Uruloki helped me become very aware of an instinct I didn't realise I had." Lisica said "That said, the presence of a fox-dragon is doing my head in something special as instincts war with each other"

"Instincts?" Blake asked

"Attacking Dragons on sight. We're smart and cunning, or supposed to be at least, but dragons are flat-out way more powerful and generally important in the grand scheme of things, and that rubs 'us' the wrong way… it's bad enough that when Cobalt levels and advances his Dragon Knight class, I get ranks in Dragon Slayer." Lisica explained an arc of electricity running up her tails

"This another thing from one of those games isn't it?" Weiss asked

"The game was called Monster Hunter. Three guesses as to why, and the first two don't count" Lisica said

"Everything around here's from a game or a cartoon, isn't it?" Weiss asked, unamused

"Well, reverse-engineering technology is miles cheaper than independant development, and people don't attempt to reinvent the wheel over and over for a good reason." Lisica said "Plus with all of science fiction and fantasy available to us, why not? We've got our pick of every miracle cure, alchemical wonder drug and advanced technology known to any geek worth his or her salt."

"How… how do you get you hands on all of this?" Weiss asked

"Well, stranga', they buy it from me!"

"Who the dust are you?" Weiss asked

"Oi'm no one, Stranga'. You never saw me." the Stranger said through his thick accent "But, if you must know, Oi'm something of an akwizitions expert, capable of getting rare and even contraband things to baffle and bedazzle the moind. It's through me that the one who built all this can pull things from… other places."

Weiss looked to Lisica

"The fewer questions asked, the better. Imagine him like a black market dealer that only appears to us, and can get you anything from blood herbs from Erinn to distill into health potions to the Lightsaber Cobalt gave you for Christmas that one time." Lisica explained "He is, in short, the secret to our success."

"You can't be serious." Weiss said

"Dead serious" Lisica said "Of all the dirty little secrets, that one's our biggest."

"This guy doesn't look like he showers, how does he-"

The stranger then produced a BFG, a shoulder-mounted rocket launcher, and a Soulgem from under his coat

"I see."

"Cobalt finds that alcohol tends to soften the blow some" Lisica advised "Though we both would recommend against getting totally shitfaced. That's a dangerous can of worms to open."

"He would know"

"Well… yes. He would know." Lisica said "Though, you can guess the sort of pressure he was under. Can you blame him?"

"Yes."

"You realise he's not your father, right?"

"I- yes, I do realise that"

Lisica sighed, sinking into the couch some "Then know that above all else, he genuinely does hold your wellbeing close at heart. All of you. Take it from the person who has a direct link to his soul: Cobalt's biggest fear is losing all of you, and without you, Cobalt fears he'll… never forgive himself for driving you away." Lisica said "Cobalt's unstable, you know that… and he likes to make other people's problems his own… because he feels unable to solve his own problems."

"Problems?" Weiss asked "What problems could Cobalt possibly have? He just became a demi-god!"

"Cobalt was born with a defect. A Neurological syndrome that makes him… obsessive, unable to read people's emotions properly, and makes simple things like eye contact extremely uncomfortable. It's a major part of him and he hates it. He's known about it since he was 11 and blames it for his weirdness… he tries to compensate, but no measure's is ever going to be 100% effective." Lisica said, switching from grape juice to grape juice that had yeast added a few years ago… or, in layman's terms, wine.

"That obsessiveness also makes things like Outer Heaven possible, but decent smalltalk impossible… it's why he's always so anti-social: he has almost no interpersonal skills… and when he realises he's made a blunder, _if_ he realises he's made a blunder, he'll obsess over that and beat himself up endlessly over it. It's the exact opposite of healthy, he realises, but then he obsesses over the fact he's obsessing and beats himself up over it… he wants to fit in and be with you guys so bad, but he can't bear the thought that he'll eventually put his foot too far in his mouth with something so inflammatory you'll leave and never come back… maybe it's an overreaction, and Cobalt wants to believe that no matter what happens you'll always be there, but he's also learned to never underestimate his capacity for saying and doing stupid things…" Lisica said

"So he's not crazy?" Weiss asked

"He's just really sad and really lonely, and wants to make other people smile… so he can be happy by proxy." Lisica said

"That has got to be the stupidest thing I've ever heard"

Lisica just shrugged "Has Cobalt ever done anything 'normal'? Look, If you want to tie him down and force him to perform group activities, that's your own prerogative: He's not going to fight you if you do… The Holodeck suites in the arcade in tower 18C, on the 9th floor might provide some nice ideas." Lisica said, sipping her juice

"Ideas?"

"I'll get you a list, hold on a second" Lisica said as the glowing gauntlet appeared again

"What is that thing?"

"It's an omnitool: a scroll, a sensors array, a microfabricator that can be used to weld and cut just about anything, and build anything up to the size of your fist in a flash… it even tells time." Lisica said "It's too useful not to have, really, so Cobalt and I replaced our scrolls with one, each, when we could… the game was called Mass Effect. It's in the game system."

Weiss closed her mouth at having her question answered before she could ask it.

Lisica finished using her omnitool to send the list

"Now then, if you don't mind, I have a lazy day of relaxing ahead of me."

* * *

 **Good News! Since it's my birthday, I've decided to treat you peeps and weirdoes to a bonus chapter today!**

 **Good spirits and good cheer to you all!**


	59. Acheron Base

"Control, this is Reagent. I have made landfall and await co-ordinates for the first dropzone." I said into my helmet's microphone.

Though I wasn't wearing the EVA Engineering suit any more, I'd kept the helmet. I liked the look, and it helped keep me quiet as I was directing the troops.

"Head east-south-east of your position for a klick and you should be at the rendezvous point. We'll time the landing for your approach." Argus informed me.

"Thanks, I'll be there soon." I said, glancing around at the ruins around me. Menagerie was obviously older, and the architecture here lacked a lot of the sci-fi feel of Vale. my eyes scanned the terraces, balconies and storefronts for any sign of hostiles, and upon not finding any, continued on my way.

The trek through the ruined city in the hinterlands surrounding Menagerie was eerie and unnerving, but I didn't dare start up my playlist on my helmet's speakers in case something attacked me.

I made my way through the streets, hearing my boots soft 'clop, clop, clop' echo through the streets. They were military style boots, after all, not made for sneaking with a cat's grace.

It had been a long time since I could just sit back and enjoy a simple walk like this. Eventually, as aggressors seemed sparse, I eased up and began to get into the swing of things, taking simple pleasure from the motion of my limbs in rhythmic timing, one foot after the other. Within minutes I'd chewed through several blocks and had begun to move to the outskirts of the city.

The soft 'beep-beep' of a symbol on my helmet's HUD, denoting that the first of the buildings had been launched, actually startled me.

That startling also made me aware of someone eching my footsteps stumbling thanks to the unexpected interruption.

I immediately turned and pulled my Exitus, supporting the oversized rifle like I would a pistol through sheer strength.

One of the lenses in my HUD linked to the smart-scope and changed to a telescoped view.

In it, I saw something black and white rapidly duck down below the lip of a building.

I gave it a good guess, shifted the aim slightly left, and squeezed the trigger, feeling my shoulder take a hammering from handling the rifle incorrectly.

I figured I'd made my point, and was rewarded with a level 40 velociraptor-like grimm leaping from a third-story window

Immediately I swapped the exitus for my storm bolter, turned ninety degrees to the left and shredded the packmate trying to clever-girl me with acidic vomit.

The loud gunshots stirred the rest of the pack into motion and I soon found myself mobbed by at least twenty, Kriegmesser darting and flashing as I danced between the melange of claw swipes, acidic projectiles, pounces, and bites, Tempest barking out a chattered report, spewing dozens of rounds in rapid fashion.

'This goes part of the way to explaining why Menagerie was so undesirable; the worst you get around Beacon and Vale were level 100 giant grimm, with an average level of about twenty… plus acidic vomit sounds like the sort of bunker-busting bullshit that'd be hard to really counter, even without an over-reliance on static defences... coating things in a base only worked as a temporary measure, as a basic solution would also eat whatever it was placed on.

A loud echoing cry signalled the arrival of an alpha, who, as I guessed, rated like the giant grimm of Vale, and was nearly 10 metres from nose to tail if my estimates were at all reliable.

I decided I wanted to watch the barracks land so I swapped from fighting to bullshit, producing the four-shot rocket launcher, leaped skyward and let loose with all four high-explosive incendiary 'inferno' rockets, before swapping to the BFG 9000-4 and squeezing off a shot with that at the big guy

As always, it was an absolute joy to fire the big guns, the explosions made all the worse when the flammable acid was vaporized by the explosions and creating a massive fuel-air explosion.

First the lightning of a gun that played the role of a man-portable nuke reached the horde, causing nearly a dozen of the velociraptor grimm to explode as their body fat, marrow and blood flash-fried to vapor

The Raptor leader was severely buffeted by now, having withstood the lightning, the organic shrapnel of its pack exploding like a string of fragmentation grenades, and the fire of the rocket-explosions, was now hit with the medium-sized plasma explosion of the actual BFG projectile, which could melt steel and slag bone in a six-foot radius and tended to briefly paralyse anything it hit that wasn't immediately dead.

Needless to say, he ended up like the Ravager-class Raptor I'd used the BFG 9000-3 on: missing the upper section of his body.

I spent a moment to collect the drops: a pittance of lien, some basic dust crystals, and I outleveled these mobs so badly they were at the 'only awards 1 xp' threshold.

I was now behind time, and decided to leap to catch up and took the old 'Traceur's Highway' across the rooftops, abusing the shit out of leap, wall-walking and even using aura to form a sort of wingsuit to glide across plazas and parks, creating a new skill, in addition to testing my ability to manipulate my own blood to go from 'Alex Mercer' to 'Alex Mercer posing really badly as spiderman', at a fairly large cost to my HP, all the while, I saw the glowing orange meteor in the sky that indicated the orbital drop.

Eventually I landed at the designated observation point; a small hill overlooking a large field that was likely agricultural before the city went bust; and pulled out a deck chair, fairly confident that my method of locomotion was just that goddamned hard to follow, even with all the whooping and yelling as I performed impromptu superpower freerunning… It had been hard to keep my mouth shut, wingsuit gliding after using a pair of skyscrapers and a grappling 'nail' to slingshot you into the air was an exhilarating experience.

I satin my chair, popped the top off of a cold beer and sipped at the strong, comfortingly familiar, bitter brew as I waited for the fireworks to start.

I didn't have to wait long, really, when with a deafening boom the bullet-shaped structure of the landing pad slammed into the dirt, carving out a large crater. I watched as the drill span up and the thing stabilised itself upright as it drilled down, before setting a small building off to the side and erecting a previously-retracted antenna.

Stowing the deckchair and sipping my beer, I walked to the building and entered a simple passcode. The door opened to admit me and inside I saw several rows of bunks, some food dispensers and, most importantly, a rack full of spare energy cells, safely padded in small rigid-foam 'sabots', to cushion any shocks.

Templar energy cells had been limited to simple microfusion cells, the batteries had somewhere in the realms of nine months of life, rather than the millennia of ZPM, but a grenade-sized plasma explosion as the 'final fuck you' to anything that managed to take out a Templar was a lot safer than 'destroys the universe as it loses containment and starts accelerating entropy in realspace' or 'creates a fist sized black hole and destroys the entire solar system'.

That was kind of _very bad_. Fucking around with the zero-state of energy fields was not something one does lightly… or, generally, even in their own universe.

It had occurred to me that I had managed to independently work my way into a Terminator 3 ripoff, accidentally. Not that I particularly cared much, I had already been cutting it close and I well past the point where I wouldn't be able to take my biography to a Terran publisher without so many copyright infringement claims I'd be bankrupted within a week.

Finished with my inspection, I keyed Argus "Everything looks ship-shape, Argus, you can start launching other modules now"

* * *

I finished stuffing my earplugs in to muffle the chatter of the heavy turrets as they cleared out the welcome wagon at around 3,000 ultra-heavy rounds per minute, per vulcan-style assault cannon (not accounting for the twin-link) in a glorious display of dakka as the first drop pod arrived, carrying a full squad of six ready-for-veterancy Templar, each having seen action in the Invasion and ready to take their game to the next level with a specialization.

I watched as the precision drop stuck the pod right on the giant 'catcher' that had once been the drill that even now anchored the barracks to the ground

Six metal assault ramps descended and six dull grey warriors stepped out.

I stood by two racks, one holding a set of six identical ultra greatswords, made in the anglo-saxon style that would make comfortable longswords for the Templar; the other held six fist-style weapons.

"Welcome to Acheron Base; your crossing point into hell. Survive out here, and you might just have what it takes for the big leagues." I greeted "You'll be learning a simple and intuitive style from me. Once you've learned the basic forms and kata, we'll be taking you out grinding grimm, and that is what you will do, day in, day out, until you have mastered your form against real foes, and reached the point where you can begin to experiment with your art in an effort to perfect it. Afterwards, you will be granted your colours and tasked with training the next batch of new recruits until you number a full company of roughly a hundred, from there you can expect deployment as an elite unit, especially in places the shinies are struggling. Any questions?"

I waited the customary half-minute, and seeing no raised hands and hearing no questions, I moved on.

"Alright, let's get to it. Gentlemen; Arm up."

"Yes, sir!"

Each Templar moved to arm up, sticking the sword on their hip with the electromagnetic plate on their thighs, before stuffing their off hand into the large metal gauntlet, which quickly locked itself into place over their normal hand, even hooking armatures to assist their synthetic muscles with moving the extra weight like their normal hands.

Each one found that the gauntlet was well-armoured, moreso than their usual fare and left them looking completely lopsided and asymmetrical with cartoonishly large left fists.

I then had each of them kneel down and accept the 'Iron Halo' in a small, humble ceremony.

The sign of an elite warrior, the iron halo was a loop of golden metal affixed to the top of a templar's armoured backpack that was designed to give the bearer a saintly appearance, and was also the emitter for a transparent golden shield that would absorb blows before their armour did. A great boon, and a reminder of their duty.

I was laying on the 'Burning angels of death from heaven' schtick really thick with this, but the Adeptus Astartes were crusader-knight style warriors to begin with.

Soon though, it was back to business.

"Right, so, first, the sword is indeed a High Frequency 'Power' Sword, ready to cleave and rend. The Fist is based on 'buckler gauntlets', and also includes a power fist, a bayonet and an underslung bolter that accepts standard rounds. Controls are as follows…"

* * *

"Good, now Lexus, again!" I shouted, watching as the two behemoths slugged each other with their swords, using their gauntlets to brush aside crushing blows, the power fields of the shielded gauntlets serving to cancel out the powerfields of the swords in an impressive display of sparks and the flash of an arc of lightning.

Occasionally the gauntlet would come around for a strike to capitalise on a sudden opening, or to force one open with the knife or gun.

I received an alert that played a ringtone, telling me that Inari, of all people, had somehow convinced someone to loan her a scroll.

I switched the call to my earpiece and answered

"Y'ellow, Cobalt speaking"

" _Why hello 'Balty, It's been a while, I miss you, your friends miss you, and whilst your duties to your knights are important, you can't forget your friends, can you?"_

"They've gone and put you up to something, haven't they?"

" _Well, let's just say I can agree with your sisters sentiment, so I decided to give you an offer that doesn't involve breaking your legs with Nora's hammer._ " Inari said " _Come here, spend time with your friends within the next day, or I will curse you with a bad case of rut. Try to deny yourself after that, and I will change that rut into heat, if you catch my drift._ "

 _ **Quest Created: The Home Front  
Avoid Inari's wrath, play with your friends, seriously, come on man.  
Rewards: Blessings of Inari, increased closeness with named characters, quest chain  
Failure: Curse: Call of the Wild (48 hrs), Rule 63 (24 hrs)  
Optional: Suck it up and rock Velvet's socks off**_

I felt my face heat up as I read the quest prompt… and Lisica offered up a telepathic reminder that Inari wasa _fertility_ goddess, though I fought it back by reasoning that was normally for cereal crops like rice, as a goddess of agriculture, to which she stumped me with the fact that I wouldn't put it past her to really screw with me like that.

Not wishing for Azura to make a comeback right now, as I was going to be under a lot of public scrutiny, I quickly hit accept and turned to the fight which was winding down

"Men, change of plans. I'm going to need you to hold down the fort here, as something of dire importance has just come up. If you wish to continue your study, manuals have been provided in the barracks. I will return in a day or two to finish your training, in the meantime, I would advise study and practice." I said

I got several acknowledgements before charging up a teleport and enduring the sensation of stretching out into infinity and snapping back.

* * *

I was ambushed as I entered Seventh Heaven, with handcuffs of the pink and fluffy sort being applied before I could activate mana muscles alongside a hastily applied dust-sprite that drained my mana.

"You could've just asked" I snarked

"You haven't been around to ask" Ruby countered

"Well, Inari threatened me first with the male equivalent of going into heat, then bringing back Azura if I didn't come here." I said "So I came here to apologise and maybe arrange some time between the lot of us for a day or two so we could keep things… well, maybe not PG, but at least keeping things out of R or X rated territory."

"Would that have been a bad thing?" Yang flirted

"Yang, a lesser aspect of my own consciousness turned me into a girl for a laugh. You do _not_ want to go poking down that rabbit hole" I said

"I don't know, from all accounts, things seemed pretty tame when you went poking around-"

Yang found the none-too-subtle threat of a katana, a kreigsmesser and a minigun levelled at her.

"Let's not finish that sentence Little Miss. Sunshine Dragon." I said "I, for one, happen to value loyalty, particularly to one's significant other."

"How did you-"

"There are as many non-magical ways to escape cheap handcuffs as there are ways to skin a cat, Yang." I said "though if you must know, I positioned my hands so my wrists were at their widest as Blake closed the cuffs, before simply moving my hands to shrink my wrists and slipping through right after you got the spell tag on me. Sloppy work, yes, but the haste didn't leave much room for thoroughness."

"Is there anything you can't do?" Yang asked

I had to seriously think about that before saying "I chose the wrong god for miracle restoration and true resurrection, despite having the means to easily procure large and expensive synthetic diamonds?"

"That's not much of a weakness" Blake said

"I refuse to scry the future via magic, for fear of an overreliance, I refuse to attempt to ascend to godhood or become a Daemon Prince, for fear of losing the agency I've fought so goddamned hard to achieve?" I tried

"Those seem to be more self-imposed limitations" Blake dismissed

"Make grounded and rational decisions reliably without a friend to bounce them off of first?"

"That works." Blake said

I shrugged "I'm not sure I can really change that part of me at this point as well… I'm a trinary being, one part of me eats grimm, the other eats fire, and I haven't needed to eat in a very long time."

"Wait, eats fire?"

"Liz, think fast." I said, producing, igniting and throwing a paper-covered wad of napalm at Lisica

Lisica's tails twitched and the fire leapt off the petroleum jelly and into her tail, but did nothing to stop the congealed petrochemicals which sailed in a perfect arc and splatted against her hair.

I then watched with great amusement as Lisica desperately attempted to keep her temper under control lest she burn off half of her hair.

I smiled, enjoying the moment before Lisica returned fire with a brick before storming off to wash her hair out.

I clutched at the impact zone as everyone else winced in sympathetic pain. Superpowers and non-human physiology or no, I still had them, they were still functional, and the brick had been thrown hard enough to have shattered upon impact.

I collapsed to my knees, gasping like a fish. Eventually, after a full minute of pain, I managed to squeak out an 'ow'

"I'm a girl and I felt that."

"Rest in peace, Cobalt, you will be remembered." Fox quipped

"It's what he gets for messing with her hair like that" Yang said

"Well, that answers that question. Looks like Velvet doesn't have much to worry about" Coco said

"Coco!"

"M… medic…"

* * *

 **Ladies and gentlemen, Lisica Jinn! Yes, she did, in fact, ditch a brick at Cobalt's junk.**

 **you may now cringe in pain and terror.**


	60. Random odds and ends

I made sure to keep the icepack firmly against my crotch in the first of the many activities: taking the high culture and eastern inspired friends of mine for a simple and patient simulated Japanese Tea Drinking ceremony on what amounted to a holodeck which was part of a large arcade currently run by a 'placeholder' Mr. Handy, whilst I waited for my family jewels to recover from point blank annihilation.

"This is… actually really nice, Cobalt" Weiss said

"Thank you… sometimes you need to just sit back and take it easy for a bit… even if it's an adult version of a tea party, it's calm, peaceful, and dripping with juicy foreign culture." I said, sipping my tea

"So, how long have you been keeping these outfits around?" Ren asked, indicating his green-black-gold kimono

"Since I decided to install a chaji venue in the holodecks." I admitted "I merely had to derive your measurements from the medical data in medbay, and put some thought into getting your colour scheme and a few design elements together in the design… I also have more underwear and socks than I know what to do with thanks to the grinding process." I admitted "though I was considering the needy and poor might appreciate 'em. I hear good socks and shoes are one of those big ticket donations that never seems to come often enough."

Blake h'mmed and nodded as she sipped her thin tea.

"How generous of you" Yatsuhashi said

I shrugged.

* * *

"Yang, Nora, Ruby… I have something to show you, and you are either going to love it or loathe it." I said

"What is it?" Ruby asked

"Is it a-"

"Nora, I'm about to show you." I said "No need to guess"

I produced a small black sphere with one red eye and three arms. Setting the little robot down, he walked over on two hands and shook everyone's hand, one after the other, with the third.

"Cute, but I don't see what the big deal is about" Yang said, before looking up to see I'd produced a dozen of them.

"Is this the surprise?" Nora asked

"Close, but no. They're only part of it. Atten-shun!"

The tripods snapped to attention

"Tripods arm up!"

The Tripods all saluted before one offered himself to me and I pulled to of his arms off, before linking them together at the bases, giving me a double-ended arm. Another joined one of his arms to the first, grabbing his fellow's arms by the wrist and detaching his, where another stuck the base of his arm on the empty stump.

Like this, I quickly had a double-ended arm made of roughly eighteen smaller arms that ended with a hand at either end.

Using the flexibility inherent in such a system, the arms reached down and either hand grabbed a knife off my belt.

"What the hell?" Yang exclaimed

"L'etranger" I said "My favourite Pole-arm"

"But I thought Immortal Phoenix was- oh, OH!" Ruby started, but stopped as the realisation dawned on her

"Cobalt, how could you!? You've tainted it now!" Ruby said "Why would you make a pun for a weapon?"

I laughed, much to Ruby's dismay, before managing to say "because I thrive off of schadenfreude, Ruby. It amuses me to do this."

Ruby regarded me with open horror

Yang looked in awe at the lengths I'd gone to for that pun; designing and developing a new breed of intelligent robot and advanced bionics, for the sole purpose of making a pun.

"Oh my god, that is adorable!" Nora said

I broke up L'etrangeur and gave the tripods a hand.

"They're useful little things, all you have to do is ask, they're more than willing to lend a hand."

"No, no, no, no, NO!" Ruby said, before covering her ears

"Goddamnit Cobalt! Stop stealing all my material before I can think of it!" Yang said

"I'm sorry I'm so fast, I guess I'm just-" I gave Yang a small electric jolt with a toned-down thunderbolt spell "-lightning quick."

"Boo!"

"Fair enough… atten-shun!"

The tripods all snapped to attention

"Company, new orders: Company Leader is now Lef-tenant Valkyrie, and you are to follow her orders. Company…. Follow the leader."

"Nora, I leave in your hands one small horde of minions. Have fun."

Nora's confused face quickly became glee as she realised that _she had minions now_.

The tripods all glanced at her with concern

"Onwards brave minions, we march, to glory!"

 **(A.N.: Oh god, what have I done?!)**

 **(B.N.: Poor, poor minions…)**

* * *

"Ah, Blake, before you go anywhere, I have something I wanted to show you" I said

"What would that be?" Blake asked

"Well, in keeping with our theme of me spending time with the teams, I figured I'd take you along to get some rather important work done." I said

"Important work?" Blake asked

"Important to you as well" I said

Blake paused for a moment, before the obvious answer came up "You mean"

"I'm giving the official pardon today, and I wanted you to come with to see it yourself." I said

"I'm coming." Blake said

"Awesome… don't mind the camera-bots, I'm livestreaming the event" I said as a half-dozen flying coke cans with small arms and obvious cameras appeared out of thin air.

"Invisible cameras?" Blake asked

"I've been stalking the white fang for months, looking to find leaders, gather intel… I know where a lot of the cells are hidden." I said "Argus is named after a mythical giant ascribed to have 100 eyes… guess what his most critical role is in Outer Heaven."

"A spy master?"

"Aye." I joked/confirmed with a chuckle

Blake just pinched the bridge of her nose

We crossed through several hallways, caught an elevator, took a transport along the 'highway' to the hangars and soon found ourselves staring at the hangar doors, which I entered without hesitation, the picture of cool nonchalance.

I took a brief moment to see the crowd gathered before me

"Hello people." I called out, speakers amplifying my voice and a probe-bot projecting a large hologram so people could see me from the back

"It's good to see so many of you up here, and it saddens me there aren't more… you're here because I wished to address you as the current acting ruler of Outer Heaven." I said "You're here, because you heeded my warning, took my advice, and were lucky enough or smart enough to evade your former comrades and make it to the templar for extraction… or someone you knew and/or loved cared enough about you to bring you out of the reach of men who would visit death and pain upon you because they do not embrace hateful ideals that no sane being should ever hold. For that, I would like to applaud you for your daring, your compassion in the face of adversity, and your great skill. I want to make it clear here: misbehave up here, and there will be consequences. Coming here is an agreement to _never_ go back to those old ways you abandoned, and false surrender is frowned upon as heavily as hostage taking… and unless you like being covered in paper cuts and bathed in vinegar for hours at a time, you won't do either. I also want to be clear that this is a _second_ chance, not an eighteenth. As unpleasant as having to tell you this is, if any of you are caught taking part in a terror attack ever again, especially one conducted by the White Fang, there won't be a third chance. All your faces and biometric data has been scanned into a database. Every Templar, ever person fighting whilst wearing my armour designs will know who you are, and you've seen how easily we are dismantling your old affiliations… that said, barring that, and barring something like murder, we'll get along fine. Keep in mind that Outer heaven is a city of _equal_ opportunities. You will not get any more or less than anyone else, and confirmed cases of racial prejudice, on either side of the race line, will be punished severely. I don't care who or what happened on Remnant, you leave that at the door or leave and don't come back."

There were several angry grumblings

"That said, welcome. As of right now, Your past is exactly that: the past. It is my solemn promise to each of you that you will be looked after. Feel free to use the facilities as you wish." I finished

"What kind of deal is this?" Someone shouted

"Sanctuary, based on continued good behaviour and trust that I'm not going to blot you from existence like some close-minded prick" I clarified

"Why should we trust some human?" someone else shouted

"Because if I was anywhere inclined to dislike you lot, I would have had one of my metal monsters kick your door in and force-feed you your own kidneys in the middle of the night, in a gigantic, systematic and simultaneous purge of a group convicted of attempted genocide… however, my compatriot here would not like me one little bit if I did that. It is because of her that I am even aware of people fleeing or disagreeing with the White Fang, and what the White Fang once was, as opposed to what it is. Stay up here, and we 'forget' you were ever in the White Fang… so long as we see a genuine attempt to lead normal, law-abiding lives. How does that sound to you? An equal opportunity to claim a happy, healthy and secure life for yourselves and your families. Is that not what you were fighting for?" I answered

"I don't know what you've been smoking, but as far as I'm concerned, the White Fang was about revenge on the humans. You captured us!" someone in the front, a woman with gazelle antlers, shouted

I pinched the bridge of my nose.

"And you think committing global scale atrocities and trying to destroy the kingdoms was the best way to enact this revenge? That killing _everyone_ was the way to go?"

"We weren't-"

"And I suppose the hundreds of thousands of grimm were, in fact, tamed animals painted black and dressed in little grimm costumes?!" I asked "I don't know about you, but I reckon you're on pretty goddamned _thin ice_ for awakening the Monster of Mount Glenn alone! Do you _really_ think the world needs _more_ villages, and their faunus and human populations alike, to go up in smoke, for entire kingdoms to die? News flash: the Grimm are monsters of darkness who do not care who or what you are, they all want you _dead_. Use and abuse of them is a blunt-force tactic only to be used if you do not care about anything in the general vicinity of where you're attacking… and I remember that vale had a sizeable faunus population. What you're doing is killing _everyone_ , not just humans."

"Hey! leave her-"

"No, fuck you. When I see this shit-"

The video flashed to a recording of a small girl running down the streets of vale on fire, desperately trying to put the flames out before she succumbed. I'd left the screams in, and desperately filtered them out in my head as the cameraman ran forth, the arms and hands identifying it as a Templar

"-I don't care who or what you are, if you're responsible in any way, shape or form for that, you are dead! Do you hear me? I will rain fire and destruction on your heads until there is _nothing_ left! That is completely unacceptable, completely unforgivable, and there is no situation under which anyone or anything will save you from my wrath if I catch anyone supporting that. Consider yourselves lucky I have my friend here to vouch for people leaving the White Fang of their own volition, or being gang-pressed into service, because there is no corner of Remnant remote, no bunker impenetrable enough to save you if I catch you killing innocent civilians like that… I get that you have been wronged, but nothing, bar nothing, warrants _that_. You are not animals, and it's time to suck it up and stop behaving like them if you truly think petty revenge is any kind of way forward. You want to be people? Well, it's time to put the big boy pants on, and realise that there's a whole world of people out there who aren't bigoted assholes."

"So what are you going to do about the-" Another, more level-headed faunus asked

"Well, I currently have the world's largest military at my fingertips… there are pressures I can exert to incentivise better treatment for all people, human and ab-human alike."

"Ab-human?"

"As far as I can tell, faunus are humans with animal traits… big whoop, I have metal for blood and a bio-mechanical left arm. You want to compare dick sizes whilst we're at it? Meta-humans are like myself, mutants, cyborgs… Ab-humans are like meta-humans, but they were born that way. You want to hear something profound I heard when I was, like, 10 years old? 'I see now that the circumstances of one's birth are irrelevant, it is what you do with the gift of life that determines who you are'... and you wanna know who said that? This guy..."

The holoscreen changed once more to show a picture of Mewtwo

"...This guy right here. Mewtwo, a _cartoon character_ … and the state of affairs is so dismal that, to date, it is the most sage advice I have ever heard. The 'Too Long; Didn't Read' version of my entire being here is to say 'here's an opportunity to be good people. I don't expect you to be saints, just go show me you're not psychopathic mass murderers, and I can forgive you for one or two bad apples in a bunch'. To pass the test, be the normal people you always wanted to be. That's all. Is that _really_ too much to ask? To ask you to be better people?"

There were murmurs, people were discussing what I was saying.

"I'll let you think on this. If you want to accept, and live here for a while, I'll have a few steward bots swing by in a few minutes to record whatever decisions are made… and I want everyone to make their own decisions, not have someone else do it for them."

I turned and left.

Outside the door, I dismissed whatever camera bots were following me, disabled my microphone, and collapsed against a wall.

"I'm glad that's over"

* * *

"There's so adorable." I said, watching the baby wyverns as they played peacefully

"I know." Penny said

"I have to disrupt this peace." I added

"Yeah- wait, what?" Penny said, suddenly alarmed

I produced a small, soft plastic ball that had a small bell in the centre and tossed it so it would bounce and roll past the three little fuzzballs.

Two words described the scene: Instant pandemonium.

The wyverns each began an 'energetic' brawl with each other over the ball, each playing a game of keep away with the ball as the prize

Blake, Velvet, Coco, Jaune and Pyrrha immediately came out to see what all the noise and shouting was about. All they saw was a mortified Penny, a baby flying wyvern, fanged wyvern and leviathan all tearing through the common room in a fight over a small jingling ball, and me looking in amusement at what I'd wrought

"Cobalt, what the hell?!"

"And that would be my cue to broker peace." I said, whistling sharply to gain attention and producing two more balls, before expertly tossing them to the other two

There was an immediate brawl over who would get which one, but eventually a peace was settled, and the baby monsters settled into playing with their newfound toy.

"Kids will be kids. Dangle something brightly coloured and shiny that makes a bunch of noise and you can expect an immediate fight over who gets to keep it if they're young enough."

"So you… what?"

"Kept two balls in reserve just to watch the fireworks… because I was bored… and I just wanted to mess with the kids."

"You're off babysitting duty" Coco said

"What? Aw man."

* * *

 **A'ight, nothing too important, just some fluff whilst we wind down.**

 **Since I'm being rather... prolific, producing chapters, I believe I'll be posting a second one later today... give it about six to seven hours.**


	61. Loose ends

"Sir, we've searched Vale and the surroundings with a fine toothed comb and have collected your loot"

There was an audible sound of stone grinding on stone as I turned to face Talos.

I had been meeting with the Valean Council at the time, and they were, obviously, none too pleased

"What is this? Looting?"

"Sir, calm down. You're taking a colloquialism for the technical term." I informed the council

"Please, do explain"

"Tell me, are you aware of Aura and Semblances?" I asked

There was a general murmur of confirmation

I explained to them what my semblance was, and the 'logic' of the loot system, throwing in a joke about woodland wolves carrying 150 gold and a magic fire ring forever being a mystery.

"...Now, Talos wouldn't interrupt me unless it was direly important." I said before turning to my robotic son

"I hope you realise that I'll have you cleaning power cells with a toothbrush for a month if you don't have a damned good reason." I informed Talos

Talos instinctively shivered at the prospect

"We found the stuff the Dragon dropped" Talos said

"Okay, which brand of mindfuck is it?" I asked "You wouldn't give it to me if it wasn't some brand of mindfuckery."

Talos produced a silver claymore. It was a simple affair, with some detailed engraving covered by loosely bound black cloth, two-handed grip and it felt light enough and was balanced well enough I had no doubts I could use it one handed.

I hit it with observe, and was pleasantly surprised

"By my blood; The Holy Moonlight Sword." I exclaimed, before being struck how appropriate that exclamation was for the silver sword version of the weapon

' _ **Moonlight' Greatsword  
This sword took shape from a memory, and through that memory, remembers its origins: As the heavenbound spear used in the slaying of Tiamat, The Monster of Mount Glenn. In the hands of the right wielder, the sword gathers light and a greater power is awoken.**_

"A greater power…" I murmured

"Mister Jinn, what is that sword?" A now-nervous councilman asked

"Not a world-ending artefact, Councillor, just a weapon... it's not just an ordinary sword, though. On its own, More or less, in this form it's just an ornately engraved silvered claymore that might thrum or resonate when brandished under the moon or near a source of magic… but if you know how it works…"

I held the sword aloft, pointing horizontally, before running the cloth-wrapped blade across the palm of my hand, and 'pushed' a small amount of power into the blade

The sword drank greedily, and I felt the weight increase until it had a zweihander's heft, but in return, I saw a translucent, anglo-saxon blade sized for a being three metres tall form of pure magic, not crystallized, but rather held in solid form, with an engraved black pattern that seemed to almost want to constrict the blade, and squeeze it until it cracked under the pressure and snuff out the light held within, but was also held in check with a trim the same shade of silver as my metallic blood.

I beheld the weapon in my hands with unrestrained awe

"It's… beautiful… eldritch, even… Ludwig The Accursed called his '[his] true mentor' and '[his] guiding moonlight'... I think I see what he saw in his blade, that took pale moonlight and made it a weapon to drive back the beasts."

"Ludwig the Accursed?"

"A bit of backstory and lore from a popular Gothic fantasy story…This accursed sword is… more of a memory that resonated with another, more powerful one, and when infused with spirit, took the form of a celestial weapon… Let us hope that we do not have to slay the moon presence. It's arrival would greatly complicate things."

"You're saying this thing is from a story?"

"You'd be amazed exactly how much of this place I've created by working off of stories and looking for interesting new ideas for useful things in them. I still feel I haven't quite picked the treasure trove of making science fiction science fact, and I doubt I ever will." I said "and I said that my semblance spontaneously generates things like these little alchemical ditties from nothing but grimm. What's to stop a few bits of epic-level lore and legend from slipping through?" I said, placing a health potion on the table

"Amazing"

"It wears thin after the first month. Now then, I believe we were discussing politics, trade, and the embassy I want to construct, with my own money and materials, in Vale." I said

* * *

"Nora…"

"Yes Cobalt?"

"You know how I'm flying this here thunderbird at a _huge_ grimm population just outside my new military base" I asked

"Yeah, you said that's why you wanted to drag me off."

"I do happen to need someone to ride shotgun and manage the thunder-rods, boomsticks and bang-makers." I said

Nora's face lit up to a degree that would have me utterly terrified, if I didn't have a rare amount of context.

She was in the co-pilot's seat before I could get another word in and already familiarizing herself with the gunnery controls at an astounding rate, and by the time I'd processed her sudden movement, she'd already prepped the missile-lockers and main gun.

I shook myself off, putting it down to another nora-ism, and said "Lastly, I have a bit of music for you, for exactly this."

"Ooh! Do tell!"

"We call it 'Ride of the Valkyries'." I said, grinning "and let me tell you, it's a classical classic."

I hit a button, and a very familiar theme track played not just on my thunderbird's intercom, but across the entire network as dozens of heavy VTOL gunships raced towards a grimm nest.

"It's time for an apocalypse now." I said

"See, you keep making those references, and I still don't follow"

"I gave Jaune that movie. Ask him. Coming up on target, we begin on your mark"

Nora wasted no time, and there was a deafening boom as the main cannon thundered its report, cracking open the nest.

"All units, fire at will! Oorah!"

There was a return warcry across the radio.

* * *

"Hey, Nora, wanna see something fucking awesome?"

Nora paused in her task of beating a Beowolf senseless "Yeah?"

"Let the goliath through" I said into the radio

Nora gaped as the Titan-sized elephant appeared from within the chaos of the nest and swung its trunk up high.

I braced myself, rooting myself to the ground, piling up the buffs for one moment of pure awesome.

Then I shouted my battlecry

" **RULES OF NATURE!** "

I drew my sword, which crackled with power and blocked the trunk, the force cratering the ground around my feet.

I put a lot of effort in and shifted the trunk onto my shoulder once the worst had passed, sheathing my sword with my other hand before grabbing the trunk and activating hammer hands for the strength boost to use the trunk to physically lift the Elephant off the ground and swing it around me in a giant hammer-throw.

The Goliath flew away from me, and I leapt up to it, Albion immediately in my hands and slashing chunks off the trunk as I ran towards its face, moving too fast for the goliath to do anything.

When I reached the base of its snout, I leapt high off the final piece before producing the Moonlight greatsword and bringing it down in a cross between Ike's Aether and the spin attack from Attack on Titan.

With that executioner's blow, I decapitated the Goliath in one fell blow.

I cratered the ground around me as I landed, Sword in one hand, ephemeral blade fading

"And that, Nora, is how it's done." I said, picking myself up, brushing dust and smoking blood off my coat, hefting my sword onto my shoulder and turning to Nora as the Goliath's corpse landed behind me, causing black smoke to pour out across my ankles.

Nora had stars in her eyes

* * *

"Y'know, Yang, you've been taking this really well." I said

"What?"

I produced a mechanical arm from behind my back

"I've been watching Volume 4. Cartoon you wasn't too crash-hot about the mech-arm Taiyang got you, and you seemed ultra down about it… anywho, I know it's been a day or two, but I put my very best work into it, weighing it carefully, putting as much synaptic feedback as I could into it… it'll be like you never lost the original"

"Oh… I… uh…"

I made sure to level Yang with my best deadpan "Yang, let's not beat around the bush. You feel like you fucked up and… as far as I can tell, don't deserve this… either that, or you're afraid of me, and, fair enough, I can honestly get that. Thing is, you jumped to my defense after I got speared in the gut… true, I shrugged the blow off, but 99.9% of people with a gaping hole in their abdomen like that tend to die within the next hour or so… so, y'know, Honest mistake. That you jumped to my defense, guns blazing without a care other than making Adam pay is… touching, though incredibly reckless. This is my way of saying 'thanks', for being a friend. I worked long and hard on it and, it would mean a lot to me if you were to put it on and see how it fits. For me and my conscience."

It was tantamount to emotional blackmail, and I was pretty sure Yang was aware of what I was doing, but I'd backed her into a corner.

Yang sighed and tentatively accepted the arm asking "your conscience?"

"You got hurt, bad, defending me. That makes me feel like shit… and I am kinda sworn to undo the damages my opponents cause; the tenet of reparation: If my enemies are causing widespread havoc and destruction, it is because I have failed to stop them."

"So you're doing this because you swore some sort of oath?"

"I'm doing this because you're my friend… but I'd have done it even if you weren't, because I'm sworn to fix what they break… the difference being is that this isn't some mass-produced standard model, but a custom job, handmade just for you with everything I could pour into it without being some super arm that can mechashift into a wave-motion gun on command. It's still over-engineered, don't get me wrong, but it's over engineered in a non-Remnant way."

"Non-Remnant?"

"It is not 'also a gun'." I said "In fact, I have entire lines of civilian products that are also 'not guns'."

"We're not that bad."

"I have seen a hoverboard, notebook and a cane all become guns in one form or another, a bloody handbag that becomes a flipping minigun, and I have seen a three-section bo-staff that transforms into motherfucking gun-chucks. You Remnants are all crazy in all the most amazing ways… and with the grimm, it's completely justified to be armed to the teeth 24/7, concealed carry, even. Can you blame me for both wanting in and to tone it down a bit?"

"Did… are you related to Ruby in some way now? I'm kinda losing track." Yang asked

"Well, I did take the form of humanity's ambition whilst I pummelled the everloving crap out of she-who-shall-not-be-named." I said, to be rewarded with Yang's deadpan stare

"No, no I am not related to you, even in the figurative sense… on that note, I do have- used to have O negative blood… oh"

"What's that?"

"I remember reading about this 'blood oath' thing, where you both cut your hands and hold the wounds together to 'mix your blood'... I just remembered exactly what my blood is, what I am now, and exactly how terrifyingly bad of an idea mixing my blood with a 'mortals' is now."

"What?"

"The events of the game Bloodborne are kicked off when someone took blood from a great old one and injected it into someone else, a human. It was discovered to have impressive healing properties, and even grant the bearer superhuman abilities: speed, strength, durability… but also a hunger for more of the tainted blood, and a curse, that they would one day become a hideous beast… given that I was changed into a lesser kin of the great old ones when Aurum did her thing to keep me from hacking shit again… and a sword hailing from that game just showed up, methinks transfusions are out of the question."

"Yeah, I think I'll keep my hands- hand to myself" Yang said, suddenly becoming downcast.

"And that is exactly why I wanted to make that arm." I said

Yang sighed and lifted the socket to her stump.

"Let me… now, this is going to hurt, a lot." I said "if you want something to dull it out, speak now or forever hold your peace"

"No… no. Just give it to me" Yang said

"As you wish…" I said "before we begin, it's probably wise to sterilise things"

I produced a 'healing spray' that worked as an antiseptic and peeled back Yang's sleeve to expose the stump. It was unnerving to look at, so I quickly sprayed it down, placed the socket over Yang's stump, and locked the clamps around her arm, then saw the small light of an active scan and some surreptitious L.E.D's signalling the progress.

"Point of no return has been reached: prepare for Jinn Tech bionic arm socket installment, courtesy of Dr. Jinn, M.D., Ph.D." I said

"Doctor?"

"Not really, but I designed a quantum power generator and my own implants, in addition to programming an auto-doc to perform the procedure for me." I said "Remember, I've been through much the same as you have so far. I got hurt helping my friends, and it cost me my arm… my off-hand, mind you, but my arm… I nearly died that day, even."

"How do you deal with it?"

"Gamer's mind helps a fuckton, I'm not gonna lie… but the chilling realisation crept along that I nearly died, like, actually had my heart stop, and that kept me awake and hyperventilating long into the night… It still scares me to think about, honestly… but I picked myself up, dusted myself off, and got to work adapting the biomechanical tech of the Templar into a bionic arm… because I had to. Because there was work that still needed doing, people to save, villains to slay or redeem as necessary… and literally none of it would happen, and none of my preparations would matter if I was too scared to step outside my front door… so I forced myself through exposure therapy, fighting when I was scared shitless of the consequences, building up my confidence again until I had convinced myself that I was badass prime…. until I'd psyched myself up once more… if you want to, later, I can prepare such for you. I conquered an excessive fear of death… I've been slowly conquering my fears… I used to be afraid of the dark, and those things that would lurk in it, now I know that the shadow welcomes me, and it is the scariest thing on the planet. I used to be afraid of heights, until I started throwing myself off a space station for shits and giggles. I used to be afraid of people, now I make people afraid of me. I am still afraid of spiders… because, seriously, fuck those things… I'm still having trouble getting over the trauma of finding one in my pyjamas _after_ I'd put them on. Bigass huntsman spider, too, the thing was the size of a golf ball. Even if it was harmless."

Yang giggled at that last one. A surreptitious glance told me that the arm was ready.

I leaned in and gave her a chaste peck on the check, before gripping her biological hand tight, revealing my glowing omnitool.

"Forgive me" I said as the needles injected themselves and the socket rapidly set to sealing itself to Yang's stump, permanently.

Yang screamed; a bloodcurdling noise that immediately invoked an almost irrepressible urge to comfort her and take away the pain she was feeling.

As Yang's scream ended, doors flew open, and I was quickly torn away from Yang with no fewer than six guns in my face.

"Yang! Are you alright?! What did he do?"

Yang began coughing, her scream obviously having tickled her throat, Yang instinctively bringing her right hand up to cover her mouth.

Except it was a mechanical hand, and obviously a mechanical hand. One with my name plastered on the side with a peel-off sticker.

I saw some of the guns lower as their wielders saw this

"Implanting Jinn-tech mechanical limb sockets is _not_ a pain-free process… I suffered through hours of torture and agony to get mine. Yangs is a newer model that automatically does most of the work all at once, like peeling off a bandaid stuck to your leg hair all in one go, as opposed to going slowly, hair by hair, until you've waxed your leg something shocking." I said as the clamp released itself and fell to the floor

"Goddamn you Cobalt" Yang said

"Yes, I tricked you… I'm very sorry about that, and how much it hurt. There's really no getting around that… and there was a bit of manipulation involved in setting things up, and I'm sorry for that too."

"Manipulation?"

"There's a few different parts to this bit of fast-thinking, fast talking and sleight of hand, if you want to hear." I explained "First was getting Yang to agree to at least put on the hand… the words 'I made it just for you' and 'please, for me.' are mighty things indeed, despite their complete lack of subtlety… then was the tricky part, keeping Yang distracted. If she tensed up, it could seriously have skewed a lot of things, so I got talking, and kept her focused on me, and not the imminent pain and bad memories whilst the arm scanned for nerve-placement and aligned the needles accordingly… I even threw in some advice for her, about what worked for me after I nearly died… then scream."

There was a flash of confusion through the crowd

"When did you nearly- oh." Blake began to ask

"Yep. My heart stopped during the breach incident. I was dead for… a lotta seconds, probably adding up to a few minutes, in short bits and burst so I didn't go brain dead, even if my body wasn't handling the stress, like, at all." I said "I didn't want to worry anyone, so I kinda didn't mention it. I'm okay, honest"

"That is not healthy"

"I know, but I don't have time to so much as bleed. It'll catch up with me, and I know I'm going to be completely unprepared for it… but right now, the fate of the world hangs in the balance. Ancient Grimm are awakening from their hidden nests and dens, ready to wreak havoc, and we have ID's on a Dark Council, pulling the strings to plunge all of Remnant into Darkness, and We're still scanning the world for both an accurate world map made of satellite photos, and to drop some _very_ large bombs on what I'm referring to as the Dark Lands, where all the grimm reside." I said

"Who- where did that come from?"

"Volume 4. It's coming out as we speak, once a week around Saturday/Sunday-ish, depending on your timezone… and they foolishly unveiled three new villains, brought in Jen Taylor's new character, Salem, who we can safely assume is some sort of Grimm Queen, and have been focusing on each of your individual traumas so far, whilst advancing the plot… on that note, Weiss, I have some very bad news"

"What?"

"Your Father's on his way here." I said "he plans to whisk you away to his mansion"

"Oh… I suppose I should go talk to him then"

"Then on that note, I have something for you, for when you're back home."

Weiss raised an eyebrow

"A new best friend" I said, producing a RAY model robotic companion, painted white that faded into blue with a flash of red in several nooks and crannies, and was black otherwise, with no trim

"Wha- why would-"

"You need friends down there, Weiss. The freaking intro showcases you having a huge outburst, likely at your father… and so I got a completely fresh AI, and built this guy here… it's in your colours, and is designed to be a close companion… I don't want to replace anyone, but I thought you could use your own 'zwei', in a sense, to help keep you from going mental"

"I- thank you, Cobalt." Weiss said, taking the Ray from me. The Ray quickly began making the base model jealous by nuzzling against Weiss.

"And if anyone but Yang wants someone to lend a hand, just ask, I can get you a Mr. Handy free of charge."

Yang flipped me off, everyone else just groaned.

"Well, dear friends, since the rest of your parents are also coming, I'm afraid I must bid you adieu… remember that you are always free to visit me up here." I said "It only took this long because either tracking them down or gaining an audience was tricky"

The rest of 'the crew' nodded sadly

"It's not goodbye, just see you later, guys. I run the fifth Kingdom now, you'll be seeing plenty of me sooner or later."

* * *

 **Guest asked "What happened to his spear and apprentice"**

 **Ravaora's around, on Outer Heaven with those kids I mentioned... Nemesis/Astartes was destroyed in the Breach. I recall mentioning that Cobalt's weapon was little more than a mangled mess of metal in the same accident that cost him his arm.**


	62. Sprites and Weiss

"Okay, so, guys, whilst we're waiting for all your parents and siblings to arrive, I have something neat I want to show you." I said

"You mean, beyond the holodecks..."

"...the city in the sky…"

"...the army of Robots…"

"...and everything else you've shown us?"

"Yes." I replied "I've been working on it for months now, and I think they're ready"

"Who are?"

"Hold still, I'll take us there directly" I said, charging up a teleport

"This… looks like a theatre" Weiss said

I clapped my hands twice and a number of eerily ringing muscial tones played, one or two at first, long and slow, until it picked up into a cacophony of the world's most musical chittering birds, as a gross of Dust Sprites in every colour of the rainbow flitted out in a flood of glowing spheres of light

Weiss shrieked in dismay, and several other alarmed shouts prompted several members of the teams to duck and take cover under the seats.

The stopped when they realised that they had all flocked to me, and I was wearing a living, softly-glowing suit of aura-eating dust-based parasites, in addition to the small swarm flitting around me like I was coated in honey and kicked into a hive of honeybees. They were only after the honey

Except the 'honey' was my aura.

"Turns out that your bog-standard Dust Sprite is fucking starving, and if you manage to feed it they're rather tameable."

"Those things are dangerous parasites, and you've allowed a plague of them up here!" Weiss shouted

"Don't be so hasty to judge, Weiss… the ones you've seen and/or heard about are desperately hungry… like, 'cannibalism is looking like a good idea' levels of hungry. I fed one, and found it quite amicable… and even capable of communication." I said

"What?"

I cleared my throat and issued a number of commands in solresol.

"What?"

"They can create very simple sounds quite easily. It takes a lot of training to get one to mimic proper speech, but an instrument's 'voice' is much easier, and they work very well as parts of a synthesizer orchestra… thankfully, I'd heard of Solresol, a language that can be conveyed through musical notes and colours to convey decently advanced degree of speech." I said "it does have some shortcomings, but the important part is that there is a language that can be expressed with music. I quickly set about learning the eight-or-so forms it came in, and taught it to the sprites… now they all speak it, and teach it to newcomers as a matter of course."

One of the sprites, a very large blue one approached and made a series of simple musical tones, like a theremin in something that would sound like discordant noise to an untrained ear.

I replied with a similar-sounding string of humming

"What did it say"

"He asked what your issue was, and I explained that you had bad history with others of its kind, as we suspected many would." I said

"You have got to be making this up" Weiss said

I provided Weiss with two things, a large book detailing Solresol, and a party invite named "Fact-check me then" I challenged

Weiss obliged me, and after some obvious discomfort that could be attributed to the discord of suddenly being able to think in a new set of terms and expressions and sounds, complete with a completely different pattern of thinking, all within the space of a second.

I remembered how Lisica had had an incident when I'd learned a half-dozen languages at once, and Lisica had accidentally slipped into each one as I learned it, gaining some early levels of proficiency, in the middle of a conversation, which had caused some awkwardness on her end.

'Blue' travelled out into the seats and spoke again

[Hello Ma'am, I hope I find you well this day]

Weiss blinked at the 'talking' Dust Sprite, then back to me

[Is it me, or did he just talk?] Weiss tried to ask, but accidentally said in Solresol

"Can you say that in English, Weiss?" I asked, smirking

[I was speaking english. What are you-] Weiss said, cutting herself off when she realised that her team had not understood her

"Learning a new language that fast can cause some cognitive dissonance." I warned "Give it a moment, and try to sort out the English terms from the Solresol and High Atlesian ones."

[I- I'll try]

"Think, Sister, not Resimiré" I offered "Experience, not Misissoldo"

Weiss struggled at that for a bit, and we spent long enough to hear she'd make a recovery in a few minutes listening to her butcher her English, to some encouragement.

"Looks like she'll be fine, folks… anyways, language and new intelligent species aside, I came here for something simple: I got a choir together, that sounds like an orchestra, and have been steadily teaching them more and more music, and I thought I might show you guys a song or two"

"Let's hear it then!" Nora shouted back

[Okay people, like we practised. They're friends, so don't sweat it too much, just keep it tidy and all together] I ordered [and a one-two-three]

 **(Track - Nanobii - Atlantis Lovestory)**

As one the sprites began a tightly choreographed display of musical flexibility and flight to create something particularly entrancing as I surrounded myself with dancing, singing fairies, in a mellow-yet-upbeat piece, with Blue even providing some heavily distorted vocals, and as we made good use of the stage for the aerial display, I ended up pseudo-dancing myself as I conducted them. All in all, it was a fun bit of goofing off

As the performance came to a close, I noticed four people had entered the room, and even from a distance I could tell they were Schnees.

"Ah, I've been expecting you" I said, hopping off the stage "Cobalt Jinn, Mad Genius, at your service"

"You certainly live up to your title" Jacques said

"I find that the road less-travelled is just so much more interesting, Herr Schnee… and that the world likes to surprise you if you surprise it back. Turns out, if you can keep the upkeep on these guys, they're very, very smart." I said

"Do I want to know how you came about this discovery?" Jacques asked

"You probably don't." I said "I do have some robot designs you might be interested in, and if I ever feel like I have nothing better to do, I might see if I can drag these guys along to pull their friends out of your mines."

"All that for me?"

"Why not? You benefit, the people of Remnant get more dust, Dust Sprites become exotic musical instruments instead of pests, and Faunus lose that little bit of ammo in the kinds of arguments that led to your terrorist problem." I said "You stand to gain a lot from what I prefer to call 'scientific curiosity meeting a love for the effing awesome'."

"I look forward to it, now then, you said you had my Daughter?"

"Of Course, Weiss, how's the differentiation going?"

"It's… going great…" Weiss said

"Did you pack?"

"I… did…"

"I'll be right back then. Mr and Mrs Schnee, Whitley, Winter, if you'll excuse me" I said, addressing each of them in turn before teleporting again.

I found Weiss' luggage packed into several suitcases and ready to go, and stashed them in my inventory before teleporting back and quickly stacking them in a small tower, and then placed Weiss's still-unnamed Robotic pet atop the pile, from where it gave a small metallic bark and waved one of its pods at the Schnees.

"Teleporting?" Winter asked

"Learning semblance plus a few advanced magical techniques, equals instantaneous transition" I said "As well as awesome butt-kicking skills, if you're into that sort of thing."

Winter looked impressed

"Well, I came here for my daughter, is she ready to go?"

"Weiss?"

"Yes."

"Is something wrong?"

"I… might've taught Weiss a language too quickly with my semblance, and it led to a bit of a 'mental hiccup' that should sort itself out in a few minutes. She's making astounding progress already as far as I can tell. I'd need more extensive testing to determine the factors and variables here, but it, like the dozens of times I've taught others this way, it should be harmless, she just speaks another language."

"So long as you know what you're doing"

I couldn't keep the amused smirk off my face, but didn't refute that assumption, before the 'ping' of a notification issued from my Omnitool, and I brought up the holographic display to see that a new series of experiments was being prepared

"Ah, shi- er, stuff and bother… looks like I've got to go make sure R&D doesn't explode in spectacular fashion. I suppose I'll see you around, Ladies and Gents." I informed the Schnees before performing a spinning backflip and teleporting at the zenith of my jump, leaving little more than motes of light in my absence

"Weiss mentioned how he was eccentric…" Winter remarked

"He's certainly… unique" Whitley agreed.

Weiss walked towards her luggage and removed the bulldog-sized robot from the top of the luggage, cradling it in her arms as it began to nuzzle against her

"What is that?" Winter asked

"Robot… pet" Weiss said, still unsure and stumbling across her english "Gift… from Cobalt"

Jacques furrowed his brows at the display

"A robotic pet? Seems like an odd invention." Whitley commented

Weiss shrugged

* * *

"So… Ruby, Velvet… I've been promising, and now… eat your hearts out." I said, as a large sliding door slid open behind me and the fog I'd been specially building up in this room spilled out.

Ruby and Velvet both shielded their eyes as they adjust to the harsh glare of the armoury.

"In here, I have one of everything, an explanation of what it is and does, and some pros and cons of the weapon… I will let both of you keep one thing each, with a lifetime of free ammo if you choose a weapon that needs it… Ruby, I've also been thinking, and I want you to have a simple customisation kit I've put together for Crescent Rose. It's supposed to put the same matter-disrupting power fields that you see on all my melee weapons, which should almost... since it's so high-grade already, quadruple your baby's cutting power. The only things that effectively stop a power weapon are another power weapon, Starship-grade armour plating… or Weiss' lightsaber… Apply that, and nothing will stop your 'baby' ever again"

With that, I handed Ruby an attaché case

"This is a little bonus on top of whatever you pick up from here." I added "This is just because I'm of the personal opinion that nothing should ever stop Crescent Rose, that no armour should be 'too thick' or 'too tough'... this should negate both those properties and make you an anti-armour nightmare."

Ruby regarded me skeptically

"...and it might also be because there needs to be someone to watch the watcher, and this will let you kill Templar… just watch out, because they're primed to detonate their power cores if you take them out." I said

"Why?"

"A few things… maybe a Templar goes rogue and takes half the order with him? Maybe I snap something shocking and overrule my 'no innocents' rule… maybe we never get to that, and you simply end up able to oneshot Giant Deathstalkers." I said "Whatever happens, it's helping to future-proof the rest of the world versus me. If the worst does happen, share that technology as far and wide as you can, as quickly as possible. It will be the key to any kind of resistance… and it'll also help kill Grimm as well, which I'm sure a lot of hunters will appreciate. It shouldn't ever come to that, but I have to consider every possibility and plan ahead… and knowing you have it and that I've told you to not only use it, but teach others to use it might help keep me honest."

Ruby nodded, understanding.

"Now then, my young apprentice, there's weapons of every sort here, spears, axes, spear-axes, guns, swords, sword-guns and gunswords… have fun, go nuts… design something new with the workbench if the urge strikes you."

Ruby seemed to remember there was a room filled with _weapons_ right next to her, one she'd been ignoring.

Needless to say, Ruby was gone in a flash

* * *

 **Not my favourite chapter… but eh, I need to get things on the road for any kind of Volume 4 fuckery… Not that we're doing Volume 4, too much has changed, and we're keeping to the original plan: Avert Volume 3's unmitigated disaster, and use Volume 4 to identify what it is we need to nuke/assassinate next.**


	63. Cobalt's been plotting

**I am ultra-fucking-sorry for missing last week, but I went to review this chapter at the last minute, and a chapter I was unsure of kinda sucked, and that just wasn't good enough.**

 **So, with this weeks chapter, the late hour and the apology chapter, this is going to be a simultaneous triple-post.**

 **Sorry once again.**

* * *

"Did you get hurt, Cobalt?" Ruby asked, indicating the cane I was leaning on as I walked into the sitting room

"Ruby, you've seen people tear my throat out and ram large sharp things through my gut, which did, in fact, sever my spine." I told her "I've told you guys repeatedly, I don't get injured, I just keep swinging until I snuff it… the cane's a bluff, one with some bite to it"

"A new weapon?" Ruby guessed

"Yep." I said, folding the short end of the 'T' into handle, which was now made of ebony and with an adamantium underlay to prevent someone cutting through it, and inlaid with gold in the pattern of a flaming, many-tailed fox running along the handle, away from a circular design of Uruloki looking towards and grasping a whole, silver moon (which was secretly made from my blood) above his head in his claws on the 'pommel' and towards the end of the sword.

Hearing the click of the catch locking the handle into a sword grip, the lock disengaged in the gold-edged, cobalt blue collar, allowing me to draw the sword from the ebony sheath with the Cobalt blue circuit-board inlay, with little gold-rimmed holes that were filled with clear plastic to allow glints of the silver sword within to show, showing the blade which had an undulating 'river' of gold running down the blade.

"You sure you don't want to make it fancier?" Qrow asked

"Well, I could put a little vermillion ribbon on the end of the handle, to catch eyes and to symbolise my deific affiliations." I said, rubbing my chin with a finger "It's supposed to be very symbolic, and also my little 'trapping of office', so to speak… and besides, I don't exactly endure a greater cost for making it out of Ebony or Mahogany than I do for any other hardwood, like Oak or Beech. Ebony just looks nicer"

"Yeah, you explained all that: you use a bunch of science mumbo-jumbo I don't understand to take things apart and put them together as other things, turning lead into gold and all that."

"All at the push of a button, yes." I said, unable to contain my smile "Another reason I don't want some tech getting out: the economic damage would be immeasurable. Suddenly things like lead, uranium, plutonium and other, similarly heavy elements become the new gold, silver and platinum, except they're all either radioactive or toxic in a way your body doesn't filter out, so you can't wear them without making yourself violently ill, and they're dull-looking anyway."

"Please stop, my head already hurts enough from taking all of this in" Taiyang said "Now you're telling me that cane cost you nothing?"

"The cane weighs about four kilos, all told. It cost me four kilos of repurposed scrap lead… that's about 100 lien, and subsidized by my energy-mass conversion machinery, and was done in thirty minutes of processing, since it's small and relatively simple" I said

Yang shouted 'What?!', Qrow choked on his whiskey, Ruby on her coffee, Taiyang just stared at me slack-jawed.

I laughed, drinking in their shock like sipping a fine wine before eventually saying "the wonders of technology. It's why I value hand-crafted work so much: the Nanolathes are just cheating, and in matters of fission, it _looks_ hundreds of thousands of times more expensive than it actually _is_ … which is why I make such a big deal out of Yang's arm being hand-worked."

That put things in perspective, and eyes were drawn to Yang and the arm now permanently attached to her.

"That said, Ruby missed something important about the cane" I said hitting another catch and giving the sword a flick, causing the sword's pieces to come apart, before a second flick had the whip retrieve the kettle from the stove on the other side of the room where it had been heating, the bladed whip making an impossible wrap around the kettle and supporting it the whole way across the room, before gently and daintily placing it on the coffee table for us

"What? How?"

"The cable is made from my blood, which was solidified in water so it'll retain its shape when I'm not actively controlling it" I informed Ruby "It's specifically a multipurpose whip-sword only I can fully utilise."

A little effort and the cane lined itself up before I unfolded the handle back to a 'T' and stamped it back together into one piece.

"For small-creature fighting, duelling and fencing, I think I found my dream weapon." I said "And with the power field, it's not totally useless against groups and large monsters."

"You have more than just that?" Tai asked

"I like to emphasize a 'right tool for the job' approach." I said "It means carrying a lot of stuff, but that's not an issue for me. I'm skilled with unarmed styles building off of Capoeira and 'Drunken Fist' wushu styles, including the weapon styles such as drunken sword or staff, leading to the 'dance of death', which is a generally impossible fighting style that makes heavy use of acrobatics, flourishes, and gravity manipulation from my belt to move like I'm literally dancing between my foes. My weapon of choice is the two-handed spear, which is used with spear, quarterstaff and bo-staff techniques culminating in my Halberd, Immortal Pheonix, which, paired with my collection of guns- a sniper rifle for extreme range, A Storm Bolter and Exitus Pistols for medium-short range and a - forms a mainstay, though since I got the Exitus Pistols, I've been considering a Stalker Bolter. My greatsword is used for beast slaying where smaller weapons just simply don't cut the mustard, and I've got a highly-mobile fighting style down-pat for that thing based on using its great weight and momentum to perform acrobatics and purposefully throw myself around for devastating blows and now I have this as a backup melee weapon to use with fencing and kenjutsu styles for duelling people in the 'main gauche' or 'miyamoto musashi' school of duelling alongside a collection of smaller knives… and, thanks to the whip, without sacrificing Immortal Pheonix's range or lethality."

"That's an awful lot… how do you carry it?"

I produced each weapon I mentioned one by one from my inventory "With a lot of effort, some lube... and a small pocket dimension I can access at will."

I enjoyed the somewhat disgusted looks I got at the lube comment.

"Anywho, what were you talking about before I came in?"

"Oh, just stuff." Ruby said

"I haven't had an opportunity to talk about 'just stuff' in far, far too long Ruby." I said "what was it?"

* * *

 **Thirty minutes later**

* * *

"So this is the school you were building" Qrow said as I showed him the MSF training Facility

"Eeyup."

"Impressive"

"Just wait until you see what people can do with it… Beacon-level education, Full Military special forces training, and it took a lot of searching to get the actual programme, tech-assisted P.E. and we employ a learning AI that customizes itself to your needs we call Aristotle, after the Greek Scientist who taught Alexander the Great. The title should be all you need to figure out what kind of ruler he was." I said with a smile "Of course, if someone wants to teach here, we'll see what we can do to fit them in... Though, with the heavy emphasis on gamification to improve learning and study skills, and subtly indoctrinate these values through repetition and a videogame's instant gratification cycle, traditional style teachers are going to have to learn to be more of a tutor, using their time to one-on-one a student who is struggling rather than dictating to a whole class."

Qrow and Taiyang nodded I walked through the hallways

"Coupled with Gamer's constant and easy improvement and near-instant memorization, Book smarts take a backseat, and more work will be done producing a high-quality textbook, and testing for application, as gamer kinda autotunes the rest. The military side of the programme will focus more on teaching people to move in power armour, shoot energy weapons without overloading them and forcing a need for a prosthetic face, and lead a platoon of Templar, from a few Sternguard and a Bodyguard unit thrown into a chokepoint and told to turn it into a killing field, to full unit tactics, focusing on making the most of the fifty-odd troops at their disposal." I said "This is a finishing school for Hunters, akin to Beacon, and also a military officer's academy, and an outfitter for a lot of my tech. It's many things, but I believe, if everything goes right, Heavenese hunters will make for ideal supersoldiers, fast and strong and smart. Ruthless and cunning, caring and thoughtful… fully-trained field engineers and medics, heavy-gunners, commandos, Orbital-Drop Assault Troops."

"Not to blow your own horn or anything"

"Hey, I'm pretty fucking fantastic… I built this place, designed my own robotic arm and power supply, and developed and programmed a robot to install it… medicine, electronics, metallurgy, a little physics and chemistry to make it work with my usual blood, and keep my body chemically balanced… I could go on and on and on… and now I'm saying I wanna teach people to be as awesome as I am, show people the secrets to magic, train them body, mind and spirit, and shape them into Hunters like you could only dream about… y'know, like me"

"More of that shoot for the stars, appealing to our ideals stuff?" Qrow asked

"A little bit… the other bit is me also wanting to utilise a new function I found after becoming associated with a major faction." Cobalt said

I brought up Gamer's menu and started pressing buttons "A subsystem of Gamer… hold on whilst I set this up… it's like a party, but on a much larger scale, and for much longer periods of time… I'd like to test that, if you gentlemen would be willing"

"What is it?" Taiyang asked

 _ **You have been invited to a guild: [MSF] Militaires sans Frontieres**_

"A guild?" Taiyang asked

"I can give you the boot after, I just need someone to tell me what they can't do with my semblance."

"Your semblance?"

"You saw how powerful I got, right?" I asked "Mr. glowy Rage Monster made of steel, fire and shadow as opposed to flesh, bone and blood?"

Taiyang nodded

"I've been able to share my semblance with others since the very beginning. I haven't done this much since teams RWBY and JNPR were star students and didn't need much help, and I was going to take care of Cinder, which I did… The Templar happened, and I'm now a faction leader… and, of course, the Templar are not the Be-all, end-all to all combat… and I don't want _just_ Templar. I don't want to completely usurp hunters. I wanted to supplement hunters, provide staying power hunters lack."

"Staying power?"

"Hunters are not the kind of units I'd pull up to hold a line… they might be hilariously powerful, but one man does not a shield wall make… there's simply too few, and even if they burn superbly efficiently, there simply aren't enough dollars in the budget to keep replacing them forever. Humanity is fighting a losing battle against a never ending tide of darkness… and that's Just. Not. Good. Enough; especially when what went down in Vale happens. Templar become part of the image, they don't cover it up with their own. The picture I had in my head, going into this, was an army of fire and steel to combat the darkness, and eventually I realised that people, especially people living up here, wouldn't just sit around for me to fix their problems, nor do the behemoths of steel project the friendliest image… so, two birds with one stone"

"Makes sense… what's the catch?"

"Basically? I'm going to use that livestreaming function on the Templar to monitor the Hunters, the ones who act like heroes and excel are going to come home to find that their face is all over the evening news, and they're something of a celebrity… and then we start to roll out the action figures, the body pillows, the posters, the souvenirs, we feature them as a new model in a wargame, you name it… and then I use the profits from my cut-price merchandise to feed a charity taking homeless off the streets and ending domestic abuse, arresting the abusers and emancipating children and spouses who are targets of hate, and taking them up here, where we feed and protect them and perhaps even mention MSF, and let them come here… that, and help fill Outer Heaven's coffers to produce more of this wondrous tech, or reverse-engineer more amazing discoveries."

"So… you're planning to run a charity off of the profits you make selling people action figures of Hunters, who you want to romanticize by showing off fieldwork?" Qrow sumamrised

"Eeyup… assuming this works out, this also severely depletes a recruitment bed for our foes, who make plentiful and ready use of the 'Lost and Damned' to fill their ranks." I added "And, assuming they leap at the chance to fight alongside their heroes, it puts warm bodies in boots and behind guns pointed at our enemies."

"You are either amazingly smart or amazingly stupid." Qrow said

"A little of Column A, a little of Column B, depends on my mood and if random chance is looking to fuck with me again." I replied "and a twenty-something Crow multikill with one heckuva sling toss is nothing to sneeze at… no offence."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Qrow asked

"Don't you turn into a crow?" I replied

Qrow just narrowed his eyes at me

"Is that a yes?"

* * *

 **Someone (Guest) said: Someone: as a lover of all things that go boom, does Cobalt get the opportunity to nuke and assassinate someone.**

 **Yes. Yes he does. Cobalt's gotta take out the Dark Council before he can even consider taking on Salem in her home. That's just common Game-sense: kill the bodyguards before you target the head honcho, it makes your life** _ **way**_ **easier.  
Also, yes, it is stupid easy to produce something akin to the Tsar Bomb for Cobalt, and it's hard to argue with a f***ing nuke being dropped as the opening salvo when he finally faces down Salem.**

 **I mean, it's no 'Liquid Tiberium Bomb', but it's far, far safer in the long-term.**


	64. A Second Chance

The door might as well have exploded for all the subtlety with which I entered the room, bellowing a warcry and charging.

Everything froze on the other side of the door as the occupants of the room processed my arrival as I wasted no time charging the three steps across the room, picking Mercury up in a move reminiscent of Left 4 Dead 2's Charger and slamming him into the far wall hard enough to make Mercury's aura crumple under the impact and still drive the wind from his lungs.

I let Mercury collapse as Lisica charged in after me, tending to Emerald.

"Mercury Black… I wish I could say I was surprised." I said

Mercury tried to get up, but I kicked him in the side, cracking a rib, before planting my boot solidly on his chest

"I was hoping you could be a better man… but I suppose you take after your father far too readily."

"Fuck you."

"The abused has become the abuser, and in the worst way possible it would seem. Welcome to the wrong side of the line. I can forgive a surprising amount of things, after all, we've all sinned at one point or another. That, is not one of those things I am at all willing to forgive."

I produced a large, ultra-heavy calibre pistol… A companion to my Exitus rifle, in fact.

Mercury saw it and began to buck and writhe.

I transferred the pistol to my left hand and shot his leg, destroying the knee.

"No conscience, no regret, no remorse, no sign that killing millions of people even fazed you… most signs even pointed to you enjoying it. That is difficult to forget, to forgive, even for me… forgive me for wanting to give you a second chance." I said "unfortunately, you only get one."

I transferred the pistol to my right hand, manually loaded a special round and sighted in between Mercury's eyes "Goodbye, Mercury Black."

I squeezed the trigger, and the Exitus Pistol gave a suppressed bark, still loud thanks to the pistols heavy calibre and high-grain shot. Mercury's head exploded as the shellbreaker round tore through flesh, bone and soft tissue without any trouble.

I set my features and walked over to the sink to wash the blood off my face, doffing my black-with-gold-trim gauntlets and cuirass, and my royal blue greatcoat with the black lining that came down to my calves, leaving me in a royal blue button-up, black combat pants and a pair of black-with-gold-trim riding boots with a kneepad extension.

I liked it, because barring my pants, anything black either had orichalcum plates or an orichalcum-based armourweave under-armour that offered resistance to most things that weren't magnum rifle cartridges or greater, and acted as a faraday cage for magic and some elemental effects, such as lightning.

It also looked cool and was in my colours… and also because if I stood facing the wind, the greatcoat would billow like a cape, and I felt like matrix dude, just with less 'edgy black'.

I quickly got to work, cleaning my face and washing my hands.

Emerald watched me like a rabbit eyeing a wolf in her den as I patted my hands dry on the paper towel and made my way to the couch, before collapsing with a seemingly exhausted sigh.

"I'm… uh… sorry." I said

"What?"

"I totally could've locked you up separate or something… I'd figured he was rotten to the core, but you guys worked together and… okay, yeah, sorry, bad mistake on my part."

"H-he… he was gonna-"

I shushed Emerald "Don't dwell on it. That way lies madness… despair…"

"What would you know?"

"A surprising amount." I said "Just know, though, that he's gone, and is never going to hurt you ever again… and I swear on my honour that I won't come within three feet of you unless you say it's okay."

Emerald looked up just in time to see a ribbon of white clamp down on my good hand, the symbol there glowing.

"What was that?"

"I just made a promise and, to me, promises are everything… to break that promise would be to unleash a particularly nasty curse on myself." I said "Of course, since I've made the promise to you, you're the only person who can release me from it."

Emerald nodded "So you can't get close to me, or else?"

I nodded "Nope. I have to remain outside arms reach, or suffer the curse… one I've already suffered before, and I'm rather keen on not undergoing its, uh… transformative effects… or have to beg for mercy from the one who put it on me."

"So if I-"

"The wording of the promise was if _I_ get close to _you_ , not the other way around. You're free to come and go as you please." I said

"How does it determine that?"

"It's magic, if I knew how it worked, I'd tell you… so far, I've got 'something, something, willpower. something, something, extradimensional manipulation." I said

"How'd you figure that out?" Emerald asked

"By becoming one with magic, shedding my mortal body and forming a body that's equal parts spirit and solid. Turns out Archons are extradimensional beings akin to some descriptions of Elder Gods I've seen, that being that they don't all exist in three-dimensions." I said "I was a newborn archon, like a child opening their eyes for the first time and realising the vastness of the world around them… It's still a confusing, jumbled mess in my head after the fact, and some parts actually hurt to remember." I said

Emerald regarded me strangely

"Well, if you need proof, I'm a trinary being now, Lisica here is a part of me, and took on my aspect of fire. Magnus, who lives in my shadow, took on the aspect of darkness or shadow, and I am steel… and we each bleed our respective aspect." I said, producing a knife and running it across my palm, causing a line of silvery metal to drip onto the table, before passing it to Lisica who did the same, except the result was a thin line of fire.

I whipped the metal up and produced a trio of health vials, shooting one into my thigh to seal the wound before helping Lisica with hers.

"Do you need one?" I asked "It should make muscle pains, bruises and that go away."

Emerald took it from me and, cautiously stabbed it into her thigh

"Why isn't it-"

"Plunger for the auto-inject is on the sides. You're holding it sideways." I said "pull it out quickly afterwards, unless you like having it healed into your thigh… that was a lesson I learned really quickly."

Emerald adjusted her grip and did as I suggested, before checking a patch of discolouration I hadn't noticed the size of a fist, watching as it disappeared.

"What is this stuff?"

"A herbal extract loaded with magical healing reagents that have been alchemically extracted and concentrated, before being loaded into little quick-inject vials that increase the staying power of a hunter many times over. They're somewhat inspired by the Hunters of Yharnam, who use the black art of Blood Ministration for roughly the same effect… Paleblood or herbs, it's roughly the same, miraculous healing"

Emerald nodded, looking impressed at the vial

"Emerald" I said, catching her attention

"Yes?"

"I… well, I want to offer you an opportunity, to get out of here."

"Come again?"

"Basically, I know exactly what you did" I said, bringing up my Omnitool, showing her killing Penny.

Emerald's eyes went wide, and she shied away from me.

"If it were anyone else, I would have put a bullet in your skull and been done with it." I said "Heck, I've done a lot worse for much less."

"What do you want?" Emerald demanded

"Let me finish, Emerald. I'm about to explain why I'm not mad." I said "So, let's see… exhibit A:"

A brief show of the scene in the cartoon where Emerald showed signs of doubt on the rooftops of Vale during the Invasion

"Exhibit B:"

Another show of the cartoon, this time from Volume four's first episode, showing the Dark Council section

"And alternate turn of events, had I not been there to create Outer Heaven and rally her to arms, and how I knew about your little scheme… What I see is horror, guilt… a conscience. Something that can't stomach the atrocities, someone who has the normal reaction to seeing Grimm spawning… and signs that there is some chance for redemption still." I said "All can be forgiven… not forgotten, but I'm willing to let it slide so long as you do not give a repeat performance."

"You're wrong"

"Oh, then I suppose seeing some of the things you wrought wouldn't faze you then?" I asked, showing a 'highlights reel' of the atrocities: Catching babies on bayonets, rape, White Fang laughing at a man as he desperately tries to hold his entrails in.

Emerald was horrified

"I thought so" I said "However, it is my belief you were manipulated, emotionally. You were, what? A Street Urchin stealing to live, and you were good at it too, thanks to your perception manipulation semblance… then along comes Cinder, and she just heaps praise on you… I've seen cult indoctrination far more subtle than Cinder ever was, Emerald, when it tore apart my family and took my father halfway across the globe, twice. He's not my Dad anymore."

"Cult indoctrination?!"

I produced a relevant article "Read it and weep."

Emerald read, ready to disprove me, to deny it, but couldn't help but draw parallels.

And as she did so, I relished the fact that it had been so simple to turn her against Cinder.

"Wha- but she-"

"Cinder was using you from the very beginning." I said "and she had you wrapped so firmly around her pinky finger you never even realised it… hence why I cannot find it in me to blame you for Penny's death. Someone was pulling your strings, and try as you might, it's flat-out stupid to blame the gun for the actions of the person."

"What… what did you want?"

"Basically? I wanted to erase your current identity, shower you with gifts, set you up in a nice place with three hots and a cot, put you through special forces training whilst sharing my learning semblance to power you up, hand you a platoon of my soldiers and then send you out to fight Grimm with the Templar serving you set to 'record', so I can turn the 'new you' into a media sensation set to rival Pyrrha Nikos herself, complete with action figures, breakfast cereal and maybe a movie… in short, I want you to come work for me instead, earning the admiration of people through acts of selfless heroism. I can't fix what's already happened, but I can vastly improve what is to come to help make up for it… it would mean becoming a 'good guy'... though I'm not asking you to buy into naive idealism, I do expect you to help protect innocent people and punish the wicked."

"What do you get out of this?"

"I'm one step closer to destroying the Grimm, and if your fanbase starts buying your merchandise, I suddenly have a lot of money I can funnel into projects to either improve Outer Heaven, give to you to make you rich, or use to slap your new name onto a charity that's all about to finding what I like to call 'The Lost and the Damned', people like yourself before Cinder picked you up, and give them a place up here, either working in a similar fashion to yourself, or elsewhere on Outer heaven in similarly nice places, or paying restitution to the people you have wronged." I said "many things… all of them in one way or another aiding the greater good of Remnant, making actual changes."

"You expect me to go along with some goody two-shoes scheme like that?"

"Goody two-shoe- fuck no! I'm offering to make you a Hunter in full, one of Outer Heaven's first, armed with all her best tech. I'd be sending you against Grimm, leading fifty-odd Templar into the firefight. That you'll become rich and famous for all the right reasons is a bonus. That it'll be your name that'll be making sure there's never another 'Mercury Black' or 'Emerald Sustrai' again."

"For me?"

"For the fact that you're an intelligent being whose had a rough life and deserves way better than they ever got… so, yeah, for you."

"I… I guess I'll do it."

"Awesome! I'd hug you, but then curse… I won't ask you to come up with a new identity on the spot, but I will need one… wiping the slate clean and all, you understand. Emerald Sustrai did those things, and whilst you've got to pick up the slack for her, you are officially not Emerald Sustrai any more."

Emerald nodded

"I'll be back, and when I do, I'll be taking you away to a new life."

* * *

 **It occurs to me that I should work in a mention of how Emerald and Mercury were captured (Fenrisian Ale loaded into dart gun, alongside sedative-smoke grenades.)**

 **But this is a last-minute upload, with no time to really rework the chapter.**

 ***sigh* goddamn my procrastination.**


	65. Saving Shion

" _I'm still not sure how you convinced us to wear these things_ " Neo said, pulling at the advanced nanomesh of the powered under-armour she was wearing

"I can be silver-tongued when I want to be" I replied, using my blood to burst a blood vessel and inflict a small wound on my tongue and quickly plate it, before opening my mouth wide to let her see it.

Neo blinked _"That is either the best or the worst pun ever"_

"Somewhere between the two, I think." I replied

"Does this mean we can get up now?" Emerald, now Jade Evergreen asked

"Have you completed the set of 100?" I replied

Emerald muttered something unflattering about a slave driver, but returned to her pushups, so I decided to let it slide.

"Just a reminder that this is only going to get harder, so you better suck it up whilst you still can!" I added, addressing the entire class "We haven't even begun turning your own suits against you, resisting your motion with the suit's exoskeleton!"

"You- You're a madman!" Emerald shouted

"Actually, no…barring the mech-assist exoskeletons, this is pretty standard of special forces units back from where I'm from… except they have to do this carrying somewhere around 25-50 kilograms worth of armour, food and equipment, in sweltering 35-degree heat, in freezing sub-zero temperatures and in the pouring rain, with no aura, no semblances, no magic, nothing, … just a baseline human armed with grit, determination, and the strength of their efforts to forge themselves in preparation for war. You have it easy." I said

"You can't be serious, Sir"

"I am very serious. We do it hardcore, mate."

"Why do you call people 'mate'?"

"Aussie slang. Means 'friend', though it's used almost like an honourfic."

"oh"

* * *

"Sit still, Cobalt." Velvet said "You're disturbing the Monsters."

"I can't, my prosthetics are itching like crazy, and I can't figure out why." I said

"Then come here, let me have a look at them" Velvet said

"I don't know what you'll find, but-" I said as I removed my shirt and turned around, only to have my arm brush against the couch which pulled a plate from the arm. I gasped from the pain, not so much from its intensity, but from the surprise.

Underneath was a brilliantly polished plate of a slightly brighter metal than Adamantium.

"What the fuck?" Velvet asked

"Since when did I shed?" I asked, feeling the new and somewhat sensitive plate, before realising the itching sensation the fake nerves were reporting had faded from the place where the plate had fallen off.

"You have gotta be shitting me" I said "I'm shedding, apparently, and the itching is the old plates chafing against the new… like I'm some kind of spider or crustacean."

A little experimentation proved that the plates were somewhat easy to pull off and not very painful… they still hurt, but I'd had about the same dealing with blocked pores and a light sprinkling of acne during puberty.

"Can you help me get the ones on my back?" I asked, removing my shirt which tore a few of the interlocking segments from my back "I can't reach those"

Velvet nodded

As we worked, and I winced occasionally, a thought occurred to me "Hey, Velvet… have you been avoiding me?"

"What? Uh, n-no, why?"

"I'm oblivious as hell, so it's only just occurred to me that you've been… distant, and even acting timid. I remember a Velvet who would cuss out her own teammates for policing her love life, not the scared little bunny who had to beg Cardin to stop." I said "So I'm wondering what I did to scare you."

"You- when you… transformed…"

"Oh… OH! You mean- ah, I see… You saw… that. Yeah, I can see why that wouldn't paint me in a very positive light… thing is, I watched Cinder kill Pyrrha, and I was beyond furious. I saw a lot of hard work invalidated. I saw events I had put everything into stopping happen anyway. I was angry, frustrated and I needed a release valve, pronto. That horrible violence and spiting the person who had destroyed Vale was the outcome was a convenient bonus… if you need an explanation, think of it as a 'Papa Wolf' response."

"I… oh."

"No one hurts my friends without a hefty reprisal." I said "Cinder was a monster. I wanted her dead and gone, so 'gone' that there was no chance of ever seeing her ever again"

There was an awkward silence before Velvet yanked another plate off, eliciting a wince

"Why are there so many individual pieces?"

"The overlapping plates allows a lot of flexibility, and also helps with absorbing crushing blows that would cause a single piece to buckle and kill me. Plus, my fighting style revolves around hit and run tactics and 'dancing' through tight formations, reaping a bloody toll as I go. That thing moves and flexes a lot, and I don't fancy ending up paralyzed, and not in the "fun" 'it goes away' manner." I said

"Makes sense"

"Plus I'm hiding my power core under there, and it's, uh… very energy-dense."

Velvet nodded "You mean it'll explode?"

"Yep."

"Why?"

"Unfortunate side effect of unstable energy technology." I said "Can be repurposed into a final fuck you if I am, without a doubt, dying… but that's a lot of dark thoughts for another time. For now, just know it's under there, and if I develop one that's powerful enough to drive the prosthetics and stable enough to not take a city block with me when I go, I might ask you to replace it."

"Oh, uh, thanks." Velvet said

"For now, thanks a million for helping me with this… I officially owe you one now."

* * *

A special beep-code informed me of a priority alert. Glancing at my omnitool I saw that there was a band of hostiles encroaching on Shion.

I smiled a slasher's grin with something between thrill and malice behind my helmet. I was dying for a good fight

"What's the matter?" Pyrrha asked

"Oh, I'm about to help Yang with a longstanding issue with her family."

"Issue?"

"Ask her about Raven." I replied "I need to get moving if I wanna be on time."

Pyrrha nodded "Go then, I'll make sure the students keep up their regime."

I touched a few buttons on my Omnitool, labelling Pyrrha as the ranking instructor in my absence

"Alright, emergency powers to you, go teach the maggots a lesson or two in hard work." I said

Pyrrha just shook her head, smiling at my half-hearted impression.

I teleported away after that.

"Hold the line goddamnit!"

"There's too many!"

"We're being overrun!"

"Keep shooting!"

"What the hell's that in the sky?!"

Many defenders and several of the bandits glanced skywards, and saw there was a glowing light above Shion, in broad daylight.

It didn't take long to realise it was something falling at breakneck pace at the village.

"Incoming!"

The sound was deafening, the impact shook the ground and knocked over the last of a half-destroyed house, and sent several bandits flying skywards.

At the centre of the destroyed pavement was a lone figure, one who had just survived a meteoric impact.

The figure was clad in some kind of armour, with a futuristic look to it.

One of the bandits opened fire, but found his bullets did little more than kick up sparks as they shattered, bounced and ricocheted off.

Another attacked with a short sword that had more in common with a cleaver than any tool for swordplay.

The dust-reinforced blade deformed and bounced off, and the figure merely pivoted on its hips to face him and cocked its head to the side, as if to say 'really?'

The armoured man then clenched his hand into a fist and, moving faster than the eye could see, delivered an uppercut to the man's chest whilst he was busy staring at his cleaver.

There was a godawful crack as the man's sternum split in two and he sailed through the air from the force of the impact, landing outside the three-metre impact zone, marked by the cracked and shattered pavement. He didn't move once he landed, the blow had bruised and collapsed his heart and lungs, and killed him almost instantly.

A bandit rushed the figure from behind whilst another charged him head-on. The being from Outer heaven moved again, producing a silver sword with a black handle and with a one-handed strike, rent both men in twain, one widthways at the hips, the other lengthways, 'from neck to groin'.

"People who would kill others for fun and profit are worse monsters than the grimm" The figure said, voice disguised by his helmet

Onlookers shared a confused glance

"You and your clan of liars, thieves and murderers shall be put to the sword, to the last man, if you do not surrender now." The figure said

The figure was laughed at. It was only one man, in an attack that had already claimed the lives of several hunters.

"So be it. You have made your choice." The figure said, glancing at his wrist, presumably for a watch and assuming a ready stance.

( **OST: God Mode by Sons of Amon** )

The defenders were able to ease up their fighting as Bandits began to encircle this new threat, who merely bent the handle of his sword into a cane and rested it in front of him, tip buried in the ground

A few bandits raised their guns, and the figure snapped up a pair of oversized machine pistols which spat a report that sent several flying for cover or to the dirt, before moving again as the bullets quickly showed little trouble killing people behind cover with penetrating shots.

A bandit decided to buy time for his friends, and charged forward. The figure flicked the guns into a reverse-grip, forcing the slides back and converting them into impromptu tonfas in a defence grip and a strange, seemingly off-balance stance.

A quick parry was followed by a punch to the gut and an elbow strike to the face, before a roundhouse to the chest also sent him packing with a fractured sternum and broken ribs, before the figure flicked the SMG's back around in his hands and released the slides back to the 'forward' position again, and stowing them in his coat, and opening his hands out wide with his palms facing upwards, as if to say 'Well, What is it?'

He got his answer when a odachi blade burst from a portal behind him and impaled him through the chest.

The bandits cheered when he slumped, and then collapsed to the ground as the odachi was pulled out, jeering at his cocky attitude.

They instantly stopped when the figure not only showed himself to not be dead, but was healthy enough to practically leap to his feet.

The figure's helmet lifted its visor just enough to allow him to spit a wad of silvery, metallic material before locking back into place as the figure turned slightly to face a large portal as Raven stepped out, her men forming up behind her, obviously planning to rush the figure all at once.

In response, the figure stepped aside as a second figure appeared in a brief flash of honey-gold light wearing a long, straight blue robe held together with a large sash tied into a bow behind her. She was wearing Kitsune mask, as if she had just stepped out of some high-culture play, or it could have been a play on the fox ears perked up above her head, and the brush of a tail sweeping behind her with every step

Raven switched out her Odachi's blade and the figure drew a katana that glittered brilliantly in the sunlight. Her off-hand went to her back, where she drew a wakizashi from a second sheath tied to the first, which served to anchor both sheathes to her obi. This new, second blade exuded a malignant, bloodthirsty aura.

This newcomer raised her tail, unravelling and spreading it out into a fan of nine tails which began to then exude a halo of golden, divine light, and an aura of immense, unknowable power.

The first figure hadn't been idle during this display, and now bore a large halberd covered in lines and rows of strange glyphs that glowed softly and seemed to bend the light around them like a heat haze, and hurt the mind to stare at for too long. Many in the clan assumed it was some kind of dust caster.

The First figure cracked his neck, the newcomer bowed slightly, without breaking eye contact

( **Track Change: Lu Bu's theme (Dynasty Warriors 8)** )

The two parties charged one another.

The Steel-clad figure was a whirlwind, his halberd used to hook feet, arms and legs, using the point to do the damage, and the haft of the pole-weapon to stun and redirect blows, forcing Raven and her men away from him, intimidated by the unpredictable and erratic movement and the Halberd that seemed to have few issues cleaving through most attempts to block or redirect it.

The Second one dodged in and out of combat on a whim, trading blows with Raven at one point, the next at a safe distance, the next after that she was in the middle of the fight, craving a bloody path with her swords, the wakizashi seeming to drink in the blood, the katana burning through flesh and clothing as it went.

On their own, each were good, but might've been overpowered. Together, however, silently acting in unison, as soon as it looked like it might happen the other was there, either vaulting over and slamming someone into the dirt, or appearing in a hurricane of flashing steel.

Raven signalled for everyone to fall back.

"Who are you?"

"Have you not been watching the telly? We've had our faces plastered over it morning noon and night for a month now." the Steel-clad figure replied

Raven scowled behind her mask, suddenly recognising them, and what had been a delaying action.

The Steel Clad figure's watch beeped, and he looked down to glance at it, before glancing upwards, followed by everyone else.

Several giant steel teardrops landed throughout Shion, and six assault ramps each slammed into the dirt.

Templar began pouring into Shion, their guns firing some kind of flak shell that tore through Raven's unarmoured clan members.

The Steel-clad figure raised his helmet's visor as the newcomer removed her mask

"My sister and I would like to thank you for such a wonderful fight." Cobalt said

"Wait, sister?" Raven said, eyes flashing to Lisica.

Raven saw Lisica's eyes were glowing and the more she looked, the more she wanted to look, slowly becoming enthralled by the glowing eyes, even as Lisica began to approach, which only caused those eyes to fill up more and more of her world.

Seeing Raven had failed the willpower save, Cobalt crossed the distance between them, Raven's eyes following Lisica's, unable to look away or do anything as the hypnosis spell took hold and Raven became open to suggestion.

Cobalt leaned in close, whispering into Raven's ear.

"You are to forget how to use your semblance, or even what it is, and be completely unable to remember, the knowledge like trying to grasp a glass orb covered in grease, until someone whispers the codephrase 'Mellonamin.' into your ear, just like this. In addition, You will feel intense, overwhelming fear if you ever leave the Rose-Xiao-Long residence for whatever reason, until someone whispers the codeprase 'Drem Yol Lok' into your ear, and lastly, if you should ever attempt to harm someone in any way, you will feel violently, physically sick to your stomach, puking uncontrollably if you attempt to continue despite this sickness, until the codephrase 'Solfalala'... lastly, you will go to sleep until I say 'Echuiv'."

* * *

Lisica finished the spell, making the instructions permanent ideas she could not willingly disobey.

Was this morally dubious? Yes. Was I doing it for a good reason? Also yes.

Did Raven deserve it? She deserved me kneecapping her is what she deserved, but mindrape would have to do, for now.

Raven nodded and slowly I wateched her eyes droop, descend, and then I caught her as she collapsed as the sounds of bolters and power swords died down.

I hoisted her into a fireman's hold and walked back to the defensive lines.

"My apologies for the late arrival, I got here as quickly as I could with as many regulars as I could spare. If you could talk to my second-in-command here about any aid you may request as compensation for the damages we could not prevent, or even caused in some cases, that would be lovely. I've got a wannabe villainess to deliver to her very disappointed family."

I charged up another teleport as Lisica arrived just in time to see me disappear.

"Thank you for saving us."

"It was our pleasure... it feels great to finally accomplish the goal we set out to achieve." Lisica replied "Now, Outer heaven is willing to offer her full support and resources in aid of helping rebuild Shion, as well as-"

"GRIIIIIIM"

"Just as soon as this is done." Lisica said, before barking a chain of commands in a strange language, and the Templar responded, forming up.

"Magnus, we might need your help on this one." Lisica said

"Which one is Magnus" a hunter asked

his question was answered when a large arm the size of Lisica rose from her shadow and slammed the ground beside her. It was pale, thin, skeletal, and with the veins of red, it looked like it had been soaked in now-dry blood.

It's face was a deformed thing, little more than an orb with a large hole in the middle, leading up to 'hair' that was a number of large tentacles.

As more and more of it emerged from the shadow, it became clear that a skeletal appearance and tentacles were a theme with this creature, going as far as having a visible spine, and two tails that split at several points to form multi-tentacle appendages... barring its belly which was covered in ivory fangs, as if at by pressing beings to its chest and stomach.

"Are we taking after the Moon Presence today?" Lisica asked, and the creature inclined its head, before nodding slowly

"Still afraid to show your true form?" Lisica asked

Magnus didn't respond

"As you wish... Grimm encroach on Shion, go, feast, slay them to the last and gorge yourself on their darkness."

The Moon Presence arched its back and howled skywards with a noise that hurt the brain to comprehend, before dashing towards the outskirts of Shion.

"W-What is that?"

"An eldritch abomination, One that saved Cobalt's life. He feels he owes it a life-debt, and has brought it into the fold, quickly making use of how it feasts on grimm to sustain its amorphous being. He named it, shelters it, and, in the same manner he calls me 'sister', he calls it his 'brother'." Lisica explained "It's on our side and few grimm, if any, can stand up to it in any kind of fight, and their presence will only serve to sustain and strengthen Magnus."


	66. What Cobalt does on his weekends

**I am _SO_ sorry, I didn't mean to post late... argh! I'm between jobs right now and all the free time is messing with my head.**

 **so, here it is, better late than never.**

* * *

"So, here we are, Menagerie" Blake said

"It seems rather… small." Sun said "and crowded."

"Well, that's what you get when you stuff everyone into such a small-" Blake began but was cut off as something very large flew very close by overhead.

There were several startled shouts and Blake and Sun both immediately dropped into a ready pose when they saw the creature had golden scales

"What the- isn't that Cobalt's dragon?" Sun asked

"Yeah… what's he doing here?" Blake asked

"Do we follow it?" Sun asked

Blake had already taken off after it.

* * *

Blake followed Uruloki to a small park and found a different man to the one she expected.

The Cobalt Jinn she knew wasn't this man, yet the way he was patting Uruloki's snout suggested he was.

"Cobalt?" Blake ventured

"Blake? Is it that time already?"

"What are you doing here Cobalt?"

"Taking a weekend off here in beautiful Kuo Kuana, Blake. What does it look like?"

"You-" Blake said, gresturing to his outfit

"Was always in full battle-rattle and ready to go, or- uh..." Cobalt said, blushing with embarassment

Cobalt was wearing a pair of flip-flops, cargo shorts, and had swapped his heavier shirt, jacket and armour for a royal blue tank top, showing off his hard, lean musculature and his prosthetic arm.

Instead of his usual sunglasses, Cobalt was wearing a brown canvas hat with a broad brim and a collection of sharp teeth in the hatband… and hanging from the edges of the brim on a number of leather t strips was a collection of bottle corks.

"What the hell is that hat?" Sun asked

"An ancient Aussie tradition, dating back at least 200 years." Cobalt said "keeps the two great aussie annoyances, the Sun and the Flies off your face. Sun doesn't like the wide brim, and the flies don't like getting swatted by the corks."

"Why are you here?" Blake asked

"This place reminds me of home." Cobalt said "Hot weather, flies aplenty, tropical in the north, desert in the middle and almost temperate in the south, with temperatures in the summer regularly sticking around 30 degrees celsius, 86 degrees in American units, to 50 C, or 122 F if you're up in Central Australia's Alice Springs… a laid back culture, welcoming and friendly, and the wildlife is plenty dangerous… I swear I saw a kangaroo grimm on my way here"

"Don't you feel a little… odd, surrounded by Faunus?" Sun asked

"Why should I? I'm one of them" Cobalt said with a smile

"Last time I checked, you were human" Sun said

Cobalt tilted his hat back, showing his unobscured eyes, and their slit pupils, before bringing his fingers up to pick at his teeth, showing off the elongated canines and the claws he was using to pick between the teeth.

"I can remove the gloves, take off the sunglasses and smile, and not have to worry about getting called out here. Though I do have to be careful to avoid my foot-in-mouth disease, the load off my shoulders Menagerie represents is incredible, and that's not all just getting rid of the coat and cuirass." Cobalt said

"So you lied to me?" Sun asked

"Actually no, I'm a mutant who picked up a lot of his sister's foxlike features when said sister possessed him to polymorph him as a prank… however, so long as I never mention that, I'm just an ab-human. One of many in Menagerie." Cobalt said

"What's an ab-human?"

"Someone that's not a baseline, stock-standard human, but was born 'close enough' to human the difference is mostly skin-deep… Technically I'm a metahuman, that is to say a changed baseline human, rather than an Abhuman, since I wasn't born this way"

"And where is… Lis-itsa?" Sun asked

"Lisica, Lis-ee-tza. It rhymes with pizza, and it's a slavic term for fox." Cobalt corrected, looking around "She's somewhere around here… there"

Cobalt indicated a sleeping fox on the other side of the park

"I don't see her" Sun said

Cobalt facepalmed audibly "You're kinda dense, you know that?"

The fox woke up and glared at Cobalt, then Sun, before getting up, bounding twice and then performing a front-flip where it transformed into Lisica, who had let her hair down, was wearing a large sun hat sunglasses, a camisole and shorts, and a pair of sandals.

"I hope you're happy, you interrupted my nap" Lisica said before turning around and turning back into a fox, marching back to the bush she was formerly napping under and laying down to go back to sleep

"We had some issues with small kids demanding she play with them because they thought she was my pet fox." Cobalt said "Lisica's really tired right now."

"So what's up with the dragon?" Sun asked

Uruloki noisily coiled himself around the base of the tree, making a low purr of pleasure as he placed himself in the shade

"He needed to stretch his wings… though he really likes the heat as well." Cobalt said "Oh- uh, I don't think you were there when I said this, but I basically had to fight him in a 'winner-takes-all' battle for dominance in a realm between realms to obtain his summon signature."

"That's quite a tale"

"My life has been one 'quite a tale' after another, each scarcely believable on their own, but one after another starts to make Axe Cop sound perfectly reasonable… and Axe Cop was written by a four year old." Cobalt said with a smile, pulling his hat low "Anyway, take care of the Chieftain's daughter, Ghira will break you in two if he thinks you've hurt his little girl."

"You know my father?" Blake asked, much to Sun's shock and horror

"I basically asked him if it was okay for me to set up and see if I could do something to help out around here" Cobalt said "I mean, there's only so much sun I can bathe in before I burn, there's only so much bad fanfiction I can read, and there's only so much time I can spend napping before I just feel like I'm wasting time, and I'm trying to cut back on the videogames like a recovering addict, So I basically put up a bounty board for odd jobs, no task too big or too small, rewards being as small and simple as a cup of tea and some biscuits, or a few cold beers… people are starting to trust me, and are coming to me with bigger issues."

Blake nodded "I see."

Cobalt shrugged "y'know, I was planning to retire after the grimm are dead and gone. Get rid of the source- they do have one- and then hang up my spurs and enjoy a quiet life, 'die' as the hero, don't live to become the villain, that kind of thing... make the 'helping people' thing a proper occupation and everything, perhaps I teach people to be hunters or something, run a forge… I could do a lot of things… I really do like it here in Menagerie, even if we did get off to a rough start."

Blake nodded

* * *

"Those psychos are here too?!"

"Young man, I'm not sure what you heard about our organization, but we're not as dangerous as the media would have you beli-"

"I find that rather hard to believe, Fennec."

"Cobalt?!" Blake and Sun shouted as Cobalt appeared from behind a lamp post, which would cause all gathered to forever wonder how he managed that particular trick

"Who are you?"

"Corsac, I know I'm not wearing my combat outfit right now, but surely you recognize the bloke who plastered his face on every screen on international TV when he put the CCT's back up." Cobalt said

"You? You hardly look the-" Corsac began, but Cobalt shifted to his combat outfit as Corsac was talking

"And I believe they are exactly as dangerous and violent as the media portrays. I was there when this footage was recorded" Cobalt said, cutting Corsac off as he raised his prosthetic hand, which projected a large screen showing many atrocities committed by people wearing White Fang uniforms

"It is for these and other atrocities that I declared the White Fang an international terrorist organisation and ordered it disbanded, completely and utterly" Cobalt said, producing a heavy calibre pistol "Though, that matters precious little"

Cobalt's next slew of videos showed the two talking to Adam, and expressing support for his work. Both the twins realised they were in the shit now

They tried to rush Cobalt, but were stopped cold when Cobalt loosed a thunderbolt from his hands

"You two are now under arrest, and- on pain of death if you don't- I suggest you come along quietly. Genocide, and support of those committing such atrocities is viewed fairly dimly in most societies. This is your first, last and only warning."

"You-"

"Save it. Any further attempts to support the White Fang or escape custody will result in a Kill-on-sight order and/or summary execution." Cobalt said

Lisica appeared and put Corsac and Fennec in hand- and ankle-cuffs, as well as a strange collar that clamped around the back of their necks, as a Thunderbird whirled overhead before alighting outside Ghira's house.

Several Templar stormed down the ramp and surrounded the two

"This is entirely unnecessary!"

"Why should I take chances with cockbites who paid lip service to Adam Taurus?" Cobalt spat, before literally spitting as if saying Adam's name left a bad taste in his mouth

He nodded at the Templar and said "Get them out of my sight."

A templar each lifted them by their robes and hurled them into the back of the Thunderbird before all of the Templar piled back in, guns still at the ready, and the Thunderbird took off once more, speeding upwards and away from the village

"You-" Blake began, but the words faded in her mouth

"Lip service to Adam Taurus?" Sun asked

"A decent line, I reckon, really conveys the sense of disgust they and theirs give me."

"They and theirs?"

"I went over this with your Dad, Blake, he knows who I am, what I have done and what I do… and what my ideals and reasoning are, just as well as you do… and, as much as he doesn't like it, or consequently me, I showed him what I knew, told him what I wanted to do, and he's- grudgingly- accepted that I'm at least doing something, and that I genuinely wanted to help… I hope, I can't read people with any real degree of accuracy."

Blake nodded, Ghira glared at Cobalt

"You have my sincerest apologies for such… uh… well, sorry for pulling out the 'General Hardass' persona on your front doorstep, Chief. Believe me when I say I'd have loved to not mix my day job with my vacation, but it was a golden opportunity to catch two decently-ranked members of the bad parts of the White Fang with their pants down… I do feel it necessary to restate that I and all Outer Heaven means the Kingdom of Menagerie no harm, I'm here to enjoy my weekend off, and the Templar are only in the outback because the wildlife is crazy dangerous, and as much as we have done so without your permission, I hope our more altruistic endeavours outweigh the insult we have unintentionally paid you… and I do mean it when I say it reminds me so strongly of home"

Ghira continued glaring at him.

"Anywho, I must be off… Ghira, I feel I've slighted you repeatedly, and… well, if you ever need a favour, no matter how big or small, just ask. A 'Small loan of a billion dollars' to helping someone move house, you name it, I'll do it." Cobalt said "Personally, if at all possible."

Ghira nodded, his frown softening some "I'll keep it in mind"

Cobalt bowed before whistling sharply, producing a note that hung in the ears too long, and hurt a lot.

A soft thud was heard before Cobalt leapt up as Uruloki, who had performed an aileron roll so Cobalt could invert himself mid-jump and mount his dragon mid-flight, shot past overhead.

Lisica watched him disappear towards the beach

"Thank you again, Chieftain." she said, before turning and leaping to all fours, transforming into a regular-sized, nine-tailed, golden-furred fox with white tail-tips, socks, underbelly and inner ears, wearing a vermillion silk ribbon tied into a bow as a collar, before scampering off… oddly, in a direction that wasn't Cobalt's.

"Is he always like this?" Ghira asked Blake

"Yes."

"Then I hope to Dust that Oum has mercy on us all." Ghira said

* * *

 **Guest said: "Drem Yol Lok?" Really? Dude, I'm all for Skyrim 'cause it's badass but that's a bit much.**

 **It means Peace, Fire, Sky; and is a traditional dragon greeting, and also symbolic of what Cobalt would give Raven by taking away her Agoraphobia… but the main reason I chose it is because I'd like you to find ONE, ONE person on ALL REMNANT who would ever think of such gibberish and nonsense as being the magic keyword. Cobalt's basically drawing random, semi-related phrases from constructed languages he's learned, because he knows without a doubt that it's a one-in-a-million chance anyone would ever figure it out.**

 **Personally, he much prefers New Vegas.**

 **Cobalt just thought it'd be novel and/or funny to talk to his dragon in Dovahzuul when he picked up the language… do note, there are two keyphrases from Sindarin Elvish, and I didn't use Klingon because I thought the word for 'danger' in Klingon kinda sucked as a keyphrase**


	67. Fallout

"Cobalt? Why are you here?" Taiyang asked as I arrived at the door.

I replied by stepping aside as Lisica turned the corner holding an unconscious Raven.

Taiyang's jaw hit the floor.

"I found her at the head of a bandit clan kicking over a village of innocents. I know I'm not the most agreeable bloke around, but… well, she's lucky I know you guys. Not many people are walking out again," I said.

"I- Thank you," Taiyang said.

"You're- uh… you're welcome," I replied.

"Wh- what happened?"

"Well, it's more what I did. Kitsune can hypnotise people, and I used and abused the shit out of that to bring her in without hurting her," I admitted.

"Okay?"

"Since she's already gone 'runaway Mum' once, I thought it… prudent to utilise post-hypnotic suggestion," I admitted, not at all proud of myself.

"What did you do?"

"Letting you know ahead of time that we did put in 'codewords' to undo the damage, okay, but She's completely unable to remember what her semblance is or how to use it. She'll have panic attacks and will generally be afraid of leaving the house if she tries to run away in a mundane fashion, and she'll be violently ill if she tries to hurt someone, so she can't murder the lot of you in your sleep… and lastly, she's asleep until she hears a certain keyphrase. All codes are in constructed languages from another world, so trying to guess them means a lot of faffing around with stuff and nonsense," I explained.

"So you're forcing her to stay with us?" Taiyang asked.

"Yang would probably crush my nuts if she found out I was holding out on her like that," I said. "Alternatively, there is a _lot_ of healing that needs to happen… and I whilst I can leverage an ungodly amount of resources to put the pieces in place, I'm aware I'm kinda a caustic and polarising influence, and that these things take a lot of time without one of those."

"So you're forcing her to live with us?" he restated.

"I just obliterated her clan to a man. Is there anywhere else she can go?" I asked. "Some safehouse Qrow frequents that you know about? I can undo the part about your house and make it someone else's."

"No, no… she can stay… but this has to stop."

"You have my solemn word, that the only time I will ever bother you or your family ever again after this is if I find out Summer Rose is somehow alive after all these years… or I fuck up worse than usual and you're being targeted because of me."

Taiyang sighed.

"Believe me, I only want to help… and I don't want that help to backfire, and I have trust issues. I don't want to excuse myself of extreme behaviour, but simply put, I'm not about to trust her further than Ruby can throw her."

"Why Ruby, specifically?"

"Because she's the only person (hopefully) within 100 metres that likely can't use her as a shotput," I said. "I was going to put her on the couch and wake her up for you, and visit periodically to take off the 'shackles' as we see signs of reform."

"Couldn't you just give us the codes?"

"I…" I considered it, weighed up the possibilities, and my faith in Taiyang, considered everything I knew of him, and came to a conclusion neither of us liked. "I'm really, very sorry, but I... don't… I don't trust you not to take the shackles either all off at once or way too early and ruin all the effort I put into getting her here… it's cruel, but I hate the mindrape as much as you do, and I don't want to have to put her through that again," I admitted.

"You don't trust us?" Taiyang asked.

"I would trust you with my life most any day of the week, but… things here seem a bit… I dunno, personal… and Raven's proven she's- shall we say- 'morally flexible'. It's not that I don't trust you, but I don't trust Raven to not be an absolute pile of shit once again," I said. "As much as I want to, having Raven escape again isn't on the agenda at all. What I want is for her to stay here and learn to be a Mom to her daughter. Like she was supposed to."

"And you thought bringing her here was going to fix that?!"

"Option 1: she reforms and can enjoy freedom. Option 2: she throws a hissy fit, constantly attempts to run away or hurt you guys and basically forces my hand, so I bundle her up and weld the door shut on the prison cell." I said "She's a bandit tribe leader, and has a long history of violence, robbery and raiding. I shoot people like that. Often on sight. It's because of you and what she potentially means/meant to you and your first daughter that I'm putting all this pain and effort into a second chance."

"Oh thank you magnanimous one," Taiyang said, with no small amount of sarcasm.

"Would you prefer I delivered you a corpse to bury?" I asked. "Because that is and always will be far easier."

"You know what I mean."

"And you know what I mean. I _want_ to be the good guy, Tai, and sometimes that doesn't let me be the _nice_ guy… Raven can't be held in a traditional cell, she'd just portal out of there in a heartbeat… so I wanted to build a cage of emotions, made of fear and anxiety, a stick and carrot for some classical reconditioning of hardened criminal into the loving mother she was supposed to be. I don't ask you to agree with the methods, I don't even want you to like them, heck, _I_ don't… but I do ask that, for Yang and Raven's sake, that you at least see if anything can be at all salvaged from this shit sandwich."

"And did you at all think that she wouldn't come to associate this place and us with her imprisonment?!" Taiyang demanded.

"Tai, let me be plain and honest here: I can be fucking terrible if I want to be. I can inflict horrors the likes of which you can only dream of in your worst nightmares. If she ends up back in my care after one too many tantrums, I will make her regret ever wrong decision she's ever made… if and when she returns, she will be thankful for getting away from 'that maniac'. If you want the men to advance towards something scary, you put something even scarier in the back."

"Do you even hear yourself?"

"Yes, yes I do… and I fucking hate it, and I fucking hate that I'm forced to do it, and say it… I look at this, what I'm doing, what I've done, and then I look at the person I was at the outset, and I realise one thing: this power; it's… _poisoning_ me, my mind… my soul."

"Couldn't you just-"

I interrupted him.

"Not political or even military power: Gamer. My entire semblance feels like it's shaping me towards becoming one thing: a Murderhobo of the highest calibre… coupled with the sheer weight I can swing and the room of china I have to swing it around in… I _know_ I'm going to destroy something a lot worse than my public relations or even personal relationships… I _terrify_ myself, with what I can and probably will do… but to stop, especially now, would be selfish… I said I would kill the Grimm, all of them, I said I would end abusive homes, and that I would right injustice, I said I would bring about technological, magical and medical miracles and that I would usher in a new age of enlightenment and wonder… I can't back down from any of that because I got scared of my own shadow; That's just... selfish."

There was a pause.

"The world of cardboard speech, huh?" Tai said.

"If you can split the planet in two with the wrong fire-package code, I think I've got grounds to make one," I said. "this isn't what I wanted to be…"

"You know, you could just ask. No one rules alone."

"I have… trust issues. The Templar are… unprecedented power, power I'm not sure Remnant's totally ready for. The potential for not just disaster, but total ruination is too extreme."

"You'll have to learn to trust people with some of the power then," Taiyang said.

"With shitcunts like Salem and the Dark Council playing shadow games against all Humanity? Pardon my french."

"You have friends, right?"

"I'm not so… certain any more. Ruby's forgiving, and it seems likely… but the rest? I've done horrible things, Tai, do they trust me? How long before I just stick my foot in my mouth, _again._ How long before something like this or Yang's arm happens, and I piss everyone off by trying to be nice?"

I sighed.

"I'll- I'll work on it… ask them, make the suits if anyone is willing to help take the things I can't trust myself with away from me."

Taiyang sighed.

"Right, and now Raven," I added.

I leant over and whispered the word into her ear.

Raven awoke, bleary-eyed.

She snapped awake the second she saw me.

"Hello, nice to see you remember me," I said.

"You..."

"Me… good job, attacking Shion like that. I used to think you were some runaway Mum on a crusade against inequity and injustice… now I hear you're a bandit lord… well done, slaughtering innocent people like _cattle_. They had done you no wrong and no harm, and you killed them. There are dozens of broken families who now have to pick up the pieces. Sons and daughters, husbands and wives."

"Why should I care?"

"Because doing all that whilst _I_ happened to be looking was the last _mistake_ you'll ever make as a lead. That mistake just cost you your job, and your clan, Miss Branwen, and I would suggest you get used to it."

Raven looked horrified.

I produced a dagger and tossed it to her.

"Now you know how they feel… except-"

Raven was across the room in a flash, before I caught her mouth with the opening to a sick bag, as Raven spontaneously puked, dropping the knife in favour of the sick bag.

"The shackles that bind you are not physical constructs, no, no. I figure you'd pick, crack or break any sort of lock I could create, or just simply gnaw through your ankle or wrist… so I had my sister lay a curse on you. You shall remain here, in the Rose-Xiao-Long household, with your biological family. Attempt to hurt them, rage against the machine and more, and you will fall into my _tender_ graces, and I have studied the works of famed masters of inflicting pain and suffering, and biological manipulation. I've always had a morbid curiosity to see just how far I can twist and modify the human form before the subject loses their mind… perhaps I attempt to bring Summer back into the world by beckoning and then binding her soul into your lobotomised body."

Raven shivered at an intimidation that mostly only worked because, at my behest, Magnus had made my shadow boil and emit a foul smoke that clung to the ground as black tendrils snaked their way under my skin and across my prosthetic.

The darkness affects all retreated fast enough to make both occupants of the room wonder if it was all an illusion.

"So, y'know, behave yourself… and if I see you meeting the proper prerequisites, I might slowly grant you your freedoms back… your ability to leave the house, perhaps? I'm sure you'd love the anxiety attacks leaving you alone… or how about I unsuppress what you know of your own semblance?"

"What? But it's- it's… ho-"

"It's there, don't worry. Deleting memories is like playing jenga, and you can only take so many blocks out before the whole tower collapses and you've got a brain-dead flesh-puppet instead of a person," I said.

"Renounce your old ways and habits, and I'll see about restoring the sanctity of your own mind once more."

Raven glared at me before ditching the now-full sick-bag at me, which made her feel nauseous again.

I stood up, grabbing a cloth to wipe my face off, and then striding the three steps towards Raven.

On the first a pattern on my body glowed.

On the second my skin had turned to a silvery metal.

On the third I was the picture of the archon who had destroyed Cinder.

I scooped Raven up by the throat, putting enough pressure on it to let her know I could crush her neck with a twitch.

Blackness and the icy grip of death snaked its way up my arm and two tendrils pricked either side of her neck. I felt Raven's aura plummet like a stone a haze of red light trailed from her and into my arm.

"Do not trifle with me. You will lose, and you will lose _everything._ I have crushed more threatening insects than you," I said in a double-voice, like the speech of a Goa'uld.

I threw Raven across the room and spun on my heels.

"I'm sorry, Tai, and thanks for… well, for listening and offering advice. I'm probably permanently off the christmas card list for that stunt, so I suppose this is goodbye… here's a few curatives for her, she's just had her aura drained."

With that, I blinked out to a remote location in the woods and charged up a teleport.

* * *

I saw two people waiting for me when I got back.

The giant figure of Inari, now dwarfing everyone at ten-feet tall, and Ozpin.

"So you did survive?"

"Barely," Ozpin said. "Argent wouldn't let me rest until I'd visited sickbay."

I nodded. "I'm glad to see you… where have you been?"

"I found him lost in the spirit world, Cobalt," Inari said.

I blinked. "Holy… shit… is he alright?"

Ozpin straightened himself up. "I am now."

"I know the technique was still in the experimental stages, but that was the last thing I wanted to happen," I said.

"What was the spell?" Inari asked.

"I attempted to teach Ozpin the teleportation techniques I make such frequent use of… he got them mostly right, but I'm guessing Ozpin, like always, left it a little bit late, and fudged it in the face of Cinder's final assault… or he attempted to dual-cast it with an illusion, which is not something I recommend without Gamer's auto-tune or a specific technique," I explained, fishing for some answers.

"The latter, I'm afraid," Ozpin said.

"Well, you're here now, Ozpin, and it's great to have you and your wisdom back and not plaguing some random farmhand in Mistral," I said.

"Excuse me?"

"Canon story says that's what happened when you 'died'," I said, complete with finger quotes. "Season Four is up to its seventh episode now, and we're warming up the black hand and waiting for villains to poke their heads out."

"I'm afraid you'll have to catch me up on that," Ozpin said.

"Sure thing, Oz, gimme a mo' to see if something's ready," I replied.

I raised my left hand to my ear as a glowing blue 'gauntlet' appeared around it.

"Hey Argent… yeah, we should meet up… sure, tomorrow sounds good, does a BBQ lunch sound good to you? Awesome… hey, I kinda hate to ask about business, but is the Golden Throne Project done yet?"

Ozpin raised an eyebrow at me, and I held up a finger to indicate to him to give me a minute.

"Well, cordon off the tunnels that aren't done, then, and prepare Styx Base for foreign dignitaries: we're doing the demo," I told Argent. "Thanks a million, see you tomorrow… bye…"

"Okay, so, we can do it in three days time. We have some accommodations you can stay in whilst you recover and unwind, and I can have a steward show you around Outer Heaven in the meantime," I said.

"You mentioned a project?" Ozpin asked.

"Oh, that… well, we're basically looking into creating a network through a sub-dimension that should allow people to travel without fear of Grimm attack… delivery trucks full of letters, packages, foreign trade goods, cars full of tourists and more emerging from 'gates' that hold portals to the realm open in each of the kingdoms," I said. "Named after its inspiration… as for Styx base, I've been constructing military bases around failed expansions in the kingdoms to serve as elite training grounds for Templar Mechmarines and testing ground for new vehicles and guns. We've been naming them for the Rivers that border the boundary between this world and the underworld, or Hell. There is the Acheron, from which springs the Styx, Cocytus, Phlegethon, and Lethe rivers… and above the ocean, in the middle of all five floats Outer heaven, high above the blue-green jewel of humanity."

"Poetic," Ozpin said.

"That's what I was going for," I said as a Steward bot approached.

"Argus and Master Jinn both hope you enjoy your stay in their domain," The Steward said, bowing.

"He would be the Steward, Ozpin," I said. "Fare thee well, and godspeed on your recovery. It's great to have you back."

Ozpin nodded his thanks.

"Right this way sir, you've been allocated a VIP suite," The Steward said.

"You didn't have to."

"Au Contraire, Ozpin, you are far more important than you give yourself credit for," I said. "Have a nice time, take a load off, study a bit even. The next three days are strictly you-time… I'll let Glynda and James know you've returned as well."

"How have they been doing?" Ozpin asked.

"About as well as can be expected I guess. Both don't trust me, but… well, giant robot army out of nowhere, some egomaniacal maniac declaring a titanic space-station to be the 'fifth kingdom', ignoring Menagerie completely by accident, and they… well, they're afraid of all the new stuff and instability launching myself into the centre of the political scene with all the subtlety of a cannon-shot has brought… and I'm not 100% sure if you saw what we did to that Dragon."

"I didn't."

"Hoo boy… this is going to take some explaining then."


	68. Diversifying markets

"Well, people, today I'm here to showcase a few Robots that will be hitting the civilian market very soon. You've all seen the Templar, all their support mechs, but I'm here today to show you there is more to our madness than military hoo-hah, large-scale destruction and blowing stuff up: We want to reconfirm, we're here to help people, and whilst a large part of it is beating back the nasties stalking outside The Kingdoms in the untamed corners of our world, and those malignant factors that are so taken with their selfishness they can be likened to cancer cells in a healthy body; sometimes, helping people is about making life easier and/or more comfortable."

There were murmurs in the crowd

"Okay, so, if any of you have been privileged enough to go to Outer Heaven recently, you'll have seen a few of these already, but for everyone else, here's Outer heaven's peacetime plan. First of all, for those times where the housework is just too much, when no matter what you do, the house never gets cleaner and the pile of chores is just piling up, I present to you a helping hand from Jinn-Tech Industrial, the _imaginatively_ named Mr. Handy and Miss Nanny robotic maid and manservant. Between their advanced learning AI, three manipulator appendages and our patented anti-gravity hover platform, Mr. Handy can go anywhere, and perform just about any task you ask of him, with any tools you care to provide. This Googly-eyed, cheerful companion was among our first designs, and has been much refined since those early days."

I stepped aside and let the Robots have the stage

"Charmed, to be sure, ladies and gentlemen. We do so hope you will welcome us into your homes" the Mr. Handy said, the picture of an old-style English Butler.

"We promise many things, but above all else, we exist to lend an 'elping 'and wherever we are needed" the Miss Nanny said in a thick french accent, complete with little maid-frill on her head.

The Mr. Handy let me have the microphone again "So, yeah, a robot butler… there are alternate personalities, and for all you code-monkeys out there, it is possible for the somewhat gifted to code custom personalities."

More murmurs, some surprised, some skeptical, others receptive, a few who weren't.

I let it sink in for a few moments before continuing.

"Our next design was the product of… I'll be exceptionally honest with you, I was bored, lonely and drunk one night- a dangerous combination- and I got some of our then-experimental technologies, threw them together with a few old pop-culture references, and created what essentially amounts to a robotic pet." I admitted

On cue, the large tank filled with water at the base and sides of the stage rippled, before a number of RAYs leapt from the water.

"That said, let it never be said I do shoddy work, even if I'm off my face… though later revisions to the design pattern certainly didn't hurt his performance either. The Ray is a stalwart companion, and its AI is partially based on Man's Best Friend. 'Born and bred' for loyalty, The RAY is designed primarily with kids in mind, with a playful, energetic personality, protective tendencies, and features a learning program that makes teaching obedience and tricks a cinch, and they're built like tanks, able to stand up to small arms fire, let alone whatever roughhousing eve the most rowdy boys adn girls can put it through… they also serve as a wealth of knowledge, able to help kids with their homework, rather than eat it, and are capable of serving as a Wi-Fi hotspot via Outer Heaven's new communications satellite network, to help provide even more reliable global coverage… We also took advantage of the amphibious design, and thus they are equipped to help teach kids and even adults how to swim, and are capable of acting as rescue divers and flotation devices. RAYs don't make messes, can run on dust, with a full tank lasting roughly four weeks or so, with some variance for quality and type, or on one of our proprietary plasma cells, which will keep your new best friend from begging for a whole six months... and thanks to new manufacturing techniques, the batteries are cheaper, pound-for-pound than Dust."

There was another set of murmurs, this one a bit more positive overall.

"Okay, so I asked people to bring their kids to see the adults talk about stuffy old robots, and for a good reason. Those who did are in for a special treat now: we're doing a free giveaway of these brand, spanking new RAYs, who are so hot off the presses, the paint's only barely dry… it's open to everyone who wants one, but, as I said, designed with kids in mind." I said, indicating a sign including a 'bring your kids for a special giveaway' clause.

There was a number of intrigued and curious murmurs

"There is a twist, however… those who want a free RAY are going to have to catch it first. They are programmed to imprint on the first person to catch them, and- if you don't mind me saying- they're slippery little suckers, especially when soaking wet. The instruction manual is saved on the RAY, who can project it for you from their mouths, but I have hard copies for anyone who can bring one back to me." I said with a smile as a Thunderbird landed, the assault ramp descending to show a small horde of RAYs.

A surprised murmur, before several kids were pushed to the front.

"Alright." I said, raising a starting pistol "Ready! Set!... GO!"

I fired the pistol and the Rays scattered like a collection of frightened chickens, going every which way and creating a brief moment of havoc and pandemonium as people attempted to catch the little robots.

I simply sat and watched as events unfolded, sitting on the edge of the stage and sipping from a bottle of water.

As the chaos ended, I stood up and waited for people to be paying attention again.

"That went better than we thought… for those concerned about children getting lost, there is a safety net in place, and the RAYs themselves are designed to deter all but the most determined malefactors." I said "Another major design goal was to ensure the safety of children, above all else. Not even I warrant a higher priority, and they will attack me if I look to be threatening anyone under the age of thirteen"

I let that sink in for a moment before moving on, standing up and returning to the mike "Now, we have construction-grade mechs for use when a pre-fab shot from space just won't cut the mustard, for example, with permanent residential housing… the true heroes, and it is to their assistance that I owe much of Outer Heaven itself..."

* * *

"Oy Vey" I said collapsing into an armchair in Seventh Heaven

"That bad?"

"I'm afraid to so much as talk to you guys. I'm decently sure I've got a good heart, because I think I would've had an attack if I had a disorder."

"It's over now" Velvet reassured me.

"Thank the gods for that." I said

"A package came for you whilst you were doing the showcase"

"What is it?" I asked

"Looks like a book. I didn't open it" Velvet said

"Alrighty, I'll have a look." I said "It could be some kind of super-awesome skill… anonymous gifts like these seem to be big things, y'know?"

I got back up, my earlier exhaustion forgotten in the face of my curiosity

I pulled at the string for several minutes, cursed my nail-biting habit and cut it with some carefully-applied use of an omniblade. I carefully followed the seams, preferring to unfold the paper gently, pulling at the tape used to seal the package, before a tear appeared and I just pulled it off.

Thanks to a trick of freakish timing, I got an emergency call before I could read the title.

"Son of a- looks like I need to go be mayor again. I'll be right back, okay honeybun?"

"Ok."

I nodded and tapped the accept button to eat the book, before turning and leaving.

As the golden motes of light settled down and the information in the book became known, I paused mid-step and felt my face heat up, which only worsened as the skill notifications appeared

"Cobalt? Is something the matter?" Velvet asked

I flinched at the sound of her voice as R-rated images flooded my head

"Cobalt? What was in that book?"

"I- it's- uh…"

"Show me the book, Cobalt." Velvet said

I didn't want to argue the point, knowing Velvet would just hound me about this until I did.

I used the skill-teaching function to recreate the book, and handed her a copy.

"The Modern Day Kama Sutra" Velvetread aloud

"I- I should really read titles before consuming a book" I said

"What's so bad about this?" Velvet asked, before leafing through a few pages

Velvet quickly realised what sort of book the Kama Sutra was, and lit up as red as I guessed my face was.

"Let's… uh… I have an emergency to get to, I'll need to… yeah… we'll talk about this later."

* * *

"Well hello my fine friend, it's about time you showed up" Roman said

"Yeah yeah, Roman; laugh it up. You wouldn't believe the amount of work that goes into managing this place… and how long before 'paperwork' became a valid excuse."

"Got a bit ahead of yourself?"

"Let me put it to you this way" I said, before walking to the Penthouse's liquor cabinet and grabbing the bottle of Fenrisian Ale

"Wait, you're drinking that swill?"

"It's the only thing that gets me drunk any more." I said, before noticing the seal had been broken

"Had some fun times, did we?" I asked with a smile

"What the hell's in that?"

"If it can get something immune to poisons drunk, I really don't want to know." I said, before adding "cheers" and throwing back a few long draughts, immediately being hit by the (mitigated) intelligence debuffs for being drunk, and seeing my strength skyrocket, boosted by the passive abilities of the Drunken Fist.

Roman just stared at me like I'd grown a second head

"If you're waiting for me to drop so you can go through my pockets, you're in for the long haul I'm afraid." I said

"What kind of thief do you take me for?"

"A pickpocket, scoundrel, attempted murderer, grandstander, and all-around prick with less charm than a wet brick." I summed up

Roman glared at me, but was cut short by a noticeable twinge of pain, followed by his arms seemingly moving in slow motion

"You alright, man?" I asked, concerned

"It's these goddamned arms. Stupid bootleg doctor." Roman said

"What kind of fucking hack did you go to?" I asked, rhetorically, before adding "hold still, lemme see, I'm something of the reigning expert on these matters"

"You?"

"I built this, and the Templar" I informed Roman, pulling back my sleeve to reveal the metal arm "You're looking at the best bionic surgeon and robotic engineer on and off all of Remnant."

"Well, since you know what you're doing, have a look, Doc" Roman said, emphasizing the word 'doc' with as much sarcasm as he could muster as he pulled back his sleeves

I took one look at the mangled, crude interface and felt my gorge rising

"This will not do, not do at all. Was he using sticks and stones to perform the surgery? This… this is actually disgusting to me… dear god, did he find his medical degree in a fucking dumpster?!" I ranted

"Can you do something other than state the obvious?!" Roman demanded

"Well, duh. Two standard issue bionic arms and an installation operation coming right up." I said "we might need to shave a little flesh off to help undo some of the nerve damage and remove the faulty interface causing you such issues."

"If I find the guy who did this, I'll make him pay."

"The Doctor or the Sniper?" I asked

"Both- wait, how'd you know it was a sniper?"

"Dude, those are my friends. I went to the stakeout back when we were enemies." I said "I heard the shot and saw your arm turn to jelly"

"The guy used a silenced rifle. You must've been pretty close to hear it" Roman said, his voice betraying his suspcions

"I was at the back near the… what was it, I think they were the south-side warehouses. Suddenly I hear this scuffle, followed by a sound like someone stomping on chicken bones, and then you're screaming bloody murder" I said "Doesn't take a genius to figure it out"

"Don't try and con a conman, Cobalt." Roman said

"So, what's your hypothesis then?" I asked

Roman levelled Melodic Cudgel at me

"Okay, that'd be quite the accusation, Mr. Torchwick." I said

"I recall our second encounter, where you rode your sister into the fight… I have to say, I never expected anyone to bring a tub of ice cream to the fight" Roman said

"Well shit, looks like the Jig is up, hey?" I said

"It certainly seems that way" Roman said

"Well, for the record, I got this far by being ridiculously prepared, with plan B's and C's for even the most serious curveballs."

I smirked and nodded at an imaginary grunt behind Roman, who, falling for the bait, spun to face the new 'threat', at which point I delivered a solid right hook to the side of his head, sending him out like a light.

I was also prone to bluffing and 'batman gambits', which relied on someone acting how I expected them to act.

"Ah, fuck, I meant to just stun him" I said

I checked to make sure he was still breathing, and reasonably certain I had held back enough to not kill Roman, I hauled him over my shoulder and charged a quick teleport to medbay, to get my measurements in…

" _At least I can save on sedatives"_ I noted in my head, trying to remain optimistic _"And Neo isn't here to ruin my day"_

* * *

Roman woke up with a very bad headache back in the suite Cobalt had given him, the one filled with caviar and champagne.

Curiously he found a glass of water next to a small packet of pain pills, a note and a small pamphlet.

Roman read the note first _"Consider this a formal apology."_

"If he thinks that he can get away with- hold the phone…" Roman said, before noticing his arms didn't hurt, moved much more freely and naturally, and most of all had skin on them

Roman could scarcely believe his eyes.

"What the hell?"

Roman saw the pamphlet outlined some of the features. His heart sank slightly to find out that it was synthetic skin, and his arms were still robotic, but these were so unlike anything he could've dreamed of… it was about then he realised that he could feel the fabric of his sleeve on his new arms, and his hands when he touched one with the other to test

Some quick movements found they were carefully balanced to not throw his back out if he swung them suddenly, like throwing a punch.

Forget the headache, features like these were worth thousands of lien alone… on the black market, Roman could probably pawn them off for enough money to set himself up for life. Not that he'd ever consider doing that, ever.

Reading the pamphlet, Roman quickly found that these were 'base model' features, with deluxe model referring to versions that could be removed for specialised tools, or came with built in accessories, like a haptic scroll interface.

"Fine… it's a start"

* * *

 **Well, look what I found sitting around in my Document Manager. Looks like I meant to post this one last week...**

 **Fun fact: this one was written before last one, so, minus the christmas special and that one (two chapters), this is chapter 66, the last chapter being Chapter 65.5  
**

 **anywho, I hope you enjoy, peace out.**


	69. counterplay

I woke up when I felt the warm bundle in my arms move, Velvet shifting herself to get more comfortable, hugged into my side as she was, before she too woke up.

"Cobalt? Ho- how did we-"

"I recall coming back to find out you'd been dog-earing pages in the Kama Sutra," I replied. "I was totally cool with it and all… I teased you a bit, you even teased back, and around the second minute of the kissing session, we both decided 'fuck it', and threw caution to the wind."

Velvet arched an eyebrow.

"Photographic memory… which means perfect clarity, 4K resolution, HD memories," I said, letting the implications stir themselves. "Even better with some illusions, to really help capture all the _little details_."

Velvet shoved my head into the pillows again.

"I have to say, you really took to some of those suggestions," Cobalt teased.

Another shove, as Velvet tried to hide her blush.

I just hugged her close and ran my fingers through her hair. "Of course, I'll love you no matter how we show it."

"Idiot," Velvet said, trying to pout, and failing because her head was firmly held to my shoulder.

"The Idiot to end all idiots," I said with a chuckle. "And, of course, your special idiot."

Velvet huffed and, again, tried to pout.

* * *

"Heya snow queen."

"Cobalt?!" Weiss said, nearly dropping her champagne.

"Thought you were finally rid of me, 'eh?" I asked, before smiling and waving at the eyes we'd drawn. "It's alright, I just spooked her."

"What are you doing here?"

"I'm an eccentric trillionaire with oodles of free lien to just toss at big charity events," I said with a smile

"Right" Weiss said, unbelieving

"True story. Like, 90% of that's slated for developments and maintenance of Outer Heaven, though." I said "You didn't think advanced alien tech came cheap, did you?"

"What do you want?" Weiss asked

"I'm just here to see how the 1% live when they're not me and slumming it in a muddy trench somewhere waiting for the local grimm to discover what a Fougasse mine is," I said, sipping my champagne. "I have to say, you sing amazingly well, your voice has a haunting quality to it… almost impossible to forget when you hear it… but I suppose you've heard all the praise I could heap on you already,"

"Yes," Weiss said.

"How's life been treating you so far?" I asked.

"Thanks for the robot… he's…" Weiss said.

"It's what I made him to do: give people a reason to smile," I said. "But thanks either way; It always feels good to help a friend."

Weiss sighed, before returning her gaze to the painting of Beacon Academy.

"It's beautiful."

I immediately facepalmed.

"You two match."

I mentally groaned at myself and rehearsed my script… not that I had one memorised, but it helped to have some idea of what to say before I started speaking.

"It's to raise money."

"Oh really? What for?"

"Take a wild guess, Henry, I know it was all over the news," I said.

"Who are you?" Henry asked.

"A friend to Miss Schnee, that's all you need to know for now… now then, your answer, please."

"Another Mantle fundraiser?" Henry offered.

"Bzzt- Wrong," I said "It's to help fund the rebuilding of Vale, after, y'know, the White fang came along, crippled all safety measures and led grimm into the city."

"Yeah, but isn't that maniac with all the robots doing that? The rebuilding I mean?"

"I am, but it's gonna take a lot to help resettle the hundreds of thousands of displaced survivors. Nice to hear what you think of me, though," I said.

Henry dropped his glass and turned pale, the sound of shattering glass drawing some eyes.

"Now then, the young Miss Schnee was right at the centre of that shitstorm… and if I were you, I'd keep my mouth shut and leave the poor girl alone with her memories for now," I said.

"Like you're any better."

"I at least know what I'm talking about," I said. "Now, I believe the words were 'move it, or we'll have security escort you from the premises'."

Henry looked like he was about to argue.

"One… two… three…"

Henry got the message and got going.

"Thanks," Weiss said.

"You're about to thank me a whole lot more in a bit," I said.

"Why's that?" Weiss asked.

"But really, does it come as any surprise, what happened to Vale?"

"Because of that," I replied, pressing a note into Weiss' hand and heading to go cause a scene.

"It was a long time coming if you ask me," The Trophy Wife said.

"Honey-"

"What? You said the same thing last night. If they're so arrogant as to think that they can get by without proper kingdom defense, then good-"

I put my hand on her shoulder.

"Ma'am, you do not want to know what I will do to you if you finish that sentence… because, do my ears fail me, or are you actually condoning the deaths of over a hundred thousand innocent civilians."

"Get off of me, who do you think you are?"

"Geez, for someone who plastered his face across international TV, you'd think I'd get some more recognition… or are you the source of that whistling noise I hear every time the wind blows?"

"How dare you-"

"How dare you," I said, interrupting her. "And I suppose you'd just love to join in on the act, huh?"

"What makes you think that-"

"Because no one- _no one-_ deserves _this_!" I said, unleashing my 'workshop of horrors' film.

That outburst caught a lot of attention, There were gasps of horror, shock, several fainted, a few puked, none were at all comfortable with seeing what I was showing.

"All footage was collected during the invasion, and with the gods as my witness, if you keep saying the things you're saying, they will _invent words_ for what I will do to you," I said.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?!" Jacques demanded.

"Serving a wake-up call. Excuse me, we have world-ending _abominations_ beating at the doorstep, let's all talk about _hair_ and _clothes_ , Like vapid teenagers. Let's all ignore a very real and present threat destroying hundreds of lives or the depraved souls who prey upon good people, at a fundraiser for the people whose lives were kriffing shattered by said monsters… it's like you don't care at all for other people, honestly. No, I don't expect doom and gloom 24/7, but a little common decency and respect for the victims of the greatest travesty since the Faunus War would go a long way, thank you."

"What do you think this is about?!" Jacques demanded.

"Economics or some bullshit if I had to guess… or, as this lady was about to suggest, how the good people of Vale _deserved_ what happened to them for not protecting themselves from a an attack specifically designed to cripple Vale and any defensive response, with the entirety of Atlas' fleets hanging above for the Vytal Festival," I said. "As a person who indulged in escapist fantasy for most of his adolescent years, it seriously boggles my mind that anyone could be this detached from the real world."

"You're making a scene, Cobalt! Stand down!" Ironwood demanded.

"I was just about to, General. I'm done tearing strips out of people who _should know better_ , because they're not _children,_ " I said, before sighing and inclining my head in a mock bow. "Thank you for the- until now- lovely evening Jacques, it was totally worth burning my bridges tonight, sorry we couldn't part under more amicable circumstances, and I hope the large donation to the 'Help Rebuild Vale' fund can start to make up for all this… Thank you Weiss for the lovely song, I cannot stress enough how much you should sing more, and not just for concerts… and since I'm likely not returning ever, to the rest of you-"

I flipped everyone a pair of one-fingered salutes and teleported.

Weiss stood there, watching the trainwreck. Then she glanced at the note in her hands.

' _Intel says you have an outburst at her shenanigans and sicced a summoned boarbatusk on her, until Ironwood shoots it. Good news is, you summoned that boarbatusk… bad news is that your father will never let you hear the end of it and revokes your inheritance. I decided to take the fall for you. You'll probably learn to hate me for this anyway, so sorry in advance.'_

Weiss blinked and re-read the message, then again.

Cobalt had said much of what she'd wanted to say… which she should have expected, considering he'd likely studied what she'd said in 'canon'... and she felt conflicted.

She disliked that he'd caused a scene, but also liked that he'd 'burned a lot of bridges' just to help her… but also disliked that he'd felt it necessary to come and 'save' her… but also liked that now her father was angry at him instead of her.

Of course, she still had to deal with her father, but she supposed that couldn't be helped either way.

* * *

"Are you sure that was at all wise?" Inari asked.

"It's a mixed bag. Did that need to be said? Hell the fuck yes. Did Weiss need to say it? Not really. Does Weiss need to go through her father's ire just because I wanted to keep my head down? I'm going to dethrone him with human rights violations sometime soon. He's about to promptly not matter. Is this all keikakudori?"

I tented my fingers and my sunglasses began to reflect the light.

"Just as planned."

"So… your plan was to step on a political landmine on purpose?" Inari asked.

"More like diving on a live grenade," I said. "Did I _want_ to be popular with rich snobs like _that_? Honestly, I'd prefer to go rolling in broken glass, have a cactus shoved where the sun don't shine and then take a bath hot sauce. Without Gamer's Body. No thank you."

Inari glared at me.

"Have you seen what Jacques does? I wouldn't be surprised if Whitley and Jacques planned Weiss' breakdown from day one… shit! I forgot to send it to her!"

I frantically pushed and pulled at my Omnitool before firing off the pirated video file to Weiss's RAY, who would dutifully deliver it to her, and her alone.

"Well now, how amusing. Here you are at last. I suppose I should end you and your meddling ways once and for all."

 ** _Mad Dog Tyrian  
Level 130 Dark Assassin_**

"You must be Tyrian. Cobalt's told me a lot about you," Inari said.

"Is that so?" Tyrian asked.

"Well, Inari's often a source of wise counsel, and if you do it just right, you can get her to reveal what her omniscience shows her," I said as I stood and turned to face the assassin. "Well, glad to finally meet the attack dog of the Dark Council. It's about fucking time you got up here… we've had you tagged for the longest time, y'know? Facial recognition, hundreds of thousands of security cameras caught you, and a few prophetic visions had your face on file and your location and movements logged since before you even knew about us."

"Resourceful, aren't you?" Tyrian said.

"Why, Tyrian, haven't you heard? I'm-"

Tyrian attacked crossing the distance in a split second, only to be caught as my shadow leaped up even faster and caught him in a mass of tentacles. Tyrian began to struggle, pushing and pulling at the tentacles, but the more he cut and tore, the more that formed to bind him and the stronger and more determined they became

"I could crush you like an insect, Tyrian. My light burns far brighter, my dark is that of the infrablack, my speed is unfathomable, my strength immeasurable, My hide is impenetrable, and my intellect has already calculated a hundred different methods to your doom, and between Inari and fate herself, it would appear that I am favoured by fortune… but, alas, I fear I suffer from your disease," I said.

"Eh?" Tyrian asked.

I reached out and grabbed his chin as the world shattered around us, to reveal a roaring colosseum, formed out of the stony crags of a barren wasteland.

Magnus hurled Tyrian to the far side of the arena, and shrank back into my shadow.

"Come, Tyrian. Stimulate my existence. Give me a fight worth remembering."

"Wh-what is this?" Tyrian asked, looking around to see that not a single member of the crowd was even remotely humanoid, and included many mind-bending monstrosities, the denizens of the nightmares of an occult-freak.

"I possess a black magic that spits in the face of reality, creating a bubble in which a world of my choosing and design can come to be. Such is how Outer Heaven came to be… though I am more powerful than in those days. I am no simple engineer, no simple blacksmith, no mere architect… I am a creator of worlds."

I held my hand up and the bleachers quieted.

"I created this place, shaped this realm in the instant we entered it… if I so wished, I could trap you in it forevermore, doomed to fight the denizens of my nightmares until you too join the _meat_ at the sides of the arena," I said. "Your false queen holds little more than a candle to the full might of The Daemon Prince of Ambition."

Tyrian narrowed his eyes and attacked.

I brought my metal arm up and blocked the strike, before retaliating with my good arm, knocking the wind from his stomach.

"Did Salem order my death, or my capture?" I asked. "I'm sure she's beyond angry right now after I offed Cinder, and robbed her of her victory… tell me, does the Attack Dog woof when Salem asks?"

I produced Immortal Phoenix, my crescent Halberd, holding it just under the axe.

Tyrian growled at me and I flung an energy bolt through Immortal Phoenix's orichalcum core, which crossed the distance between us like an arrow.

Tyrian dodged and attacked. We exchanged blows in a lightning fast flurry, moving back and forth across the arena, Tyrian keeping me hard-pressed to defend myself. It was clear he was the better at this than I was.

Tyrian attacked high, so I blocked with the side of the halberd's spike, which led to Tyrian attacking low, so I shifted the block to counter that strike with the haft. Tyrian twisted it and wrenched the spearaxe from my grip, to which I responded with a blast of force which flung Tyrian several paces back, knocking Tyrian's coat from his shoulders and showing off his tail.

Tyrian opened up with his SMGs, and I didn't even bother to block them, instead T-posing and letting great gouts of my silver blood erupt with each impact, keeping an eye on my HP, and using one of the vials in my arm to recover what was lost.

Tyrian's guns clicked empty, and I stood amidst a pool of my own blood, the sanguine liquid pooling around my boots.

"See, Tyrian, you just made the classic blunder of arming your enemies," I said.

Tyrian looked confused until, with a motion, my blood sprang to life, rising in thousands of small flechettes

I returned fire, Tyrian dodging out the way as the barbs decimated the area around him, forced to back off when an approach to attack caused a small tornado of flechettes, which also absorbed some of his SMG fire as I shaped a sword-like ribbon that coiled around my arm like some kind of spring-turned gauntlet, before rapidly straightening out into a devastating thrust attack.

Tyrian interrupted my casting by kicking a boulder at me.

I recovered, drawing my Jiang-styled cane-sword and found Tyrian following up with fervour, attacking with a seemingly wild abandon, erratic and unpredictable as to where and how the next attack would come.

I duelled him, us two dancing around one another, a true partner for the dance of death.

"Oh this feels so good… You make the blood really _sing_ in my veins, Tyrian! Can you not feel it? The impact of steel on steel, the _ecstatic_ motion of the flesh, the stimulation as we try to outplay, outplan- _outthink_ one another?!" I said.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Tyrian asked, before launching into a flurry of attacks I barely managed to dodge or hold off, which disarmed me, but allowed me an opportunity to kick him away.

"I suppose it's time to just… _let it go_ ," I said, shrugging my greatcoat off my shoulders, tossing it to the side of the arena.

I reached to the sides of my cuirass, removing the protective adamantium vest, and pulled my shirt over my head, before throwing both to meet with my jacket in a pile.

Now barechested, I removed my sunglasses, before extending my claws, which I'd added to my arm.

I smiled at Tyrian with my newly toothy grin, a feral smile, one he'd given to plenty of other people before, my eyes meeting his.

"A faunus?" Tyrian asked.

"Half-faunus, thank you very much," I said. "Though, that label doesn't apply much any more."

I flared my soul, and the silver of my arm and back implants began to spread. Within a few moments not a single patch of skin remained. I took a deep breath as orange flames flickered in my mouth, giving me an inner illumination.

The plates on my back flexed like spines, and I fed my blood into the ports, where four brand new arms were quickly produced, and I began to float in the air, a halo of light lending me a deific visage.

Tyrian took a step back, afraid.

 _I am the bone of my sword  
_ _Steel is my body and Fire is my blood  
_ _I have created over a thousand blades  
_ _Known to death, yet rejoicing in life  
_ _Through my trials I have withstood great pain to create many weapons for you  
_ _I have no regrets, this is the only path  
_ _So hear my soul as it cries for you:_ _  
_

As I spoke the prayer, six concentric rings of steel and crystal sprang up, forming swords, greatswords, spears, polearms, maces, axes, daggers, hammers, and even several large throwing weapons; the blades, points and edges all formed of crystalline soul, the handles and shafts all made of my brilliant sangresteel, and when they were done forming, they numbered 144.

I held the final note in reserve, savouring the look on Tyrian's face as all the weapons pointed the sharp, pointy bit at my target.

 _ **Unlimited Blade Works!**_

To Tyrian's credit, he put up a valiant fight, deflecting, shooting down and shattering a dozen weapons as they surged towards him. It didn't stop him from being sliced up though.

As he surged to his feet, Tyrian found me puppeteering my swords with gestures, directing them where to go. The weapons obeyed and darted to and fro, Tyrian constantly on his toes to keep track of the weapons as they stabbed, slashed, hacked, and attempted to crush him.

Tyrian was still shattering each weapon, which meant my strikes numbered one hundred and forty four attacks and defenses.

With number 120, I managed to pin Tyrian's knee to the ground with a harpoon, the point firmly stuck behind him.

Tyrian screamed, and I tried to block out the sounds of pain.

Taking a deep breath, I raised my hand as the remaining two dozen weapons rose and began circling my hand.

They and the shattered fragments vaporised before swirling into a light resting in my palm, the metal liquidised before latching onto Tyrian's ankle and becoming a series of custom metal restraints designed to hold Tyrian in place.

"Know this: After you comes Hazel, then Watts, then Salem. None of your debased order will survive the coming storm, and I will scrub your _filth_ from the face of Remnant in the purge _myself._ "

"I'd like to see you try," Tyrian said.

I took a deep breath and said, "One."

A mana bolt shot from my palm and went whizzing past Tyrian's head.

"You missed."

"Two," I said, as two mana bolts, one after the other, lanced through his shoulders.

Tyrian screamed again.

"Four," I said, picking up the tempo.

I blew out both of Tyrian's elbows and his remaining good knee, before letting the final one go whizzing past.

"Eight," preceded a random bombardment, as did the following, up to thirty two, when the bolts became a near-constant stream, one after the other, swamping the target area with bolts.

Instead of sixty-four I merely said, " **Soul Stream.** "

The blasts all blurred together and merged into a merged into one beam, which then grew to double its size before abating. To be honest, I'd totally ripped the counting thing from Naruto for showy effects that also showed how I'd come across the technique.

Nothing was left but smoke and ashes, the area behind Tyrian scorched black. I released my power, and felt the drain all that casting had taken on me.

 _ **You have defeated Tyrian  
**_ _ **Objectives for Quest: Lightbringer have been updated**_

 _ **Enemy Defeated, to the Victor go the spoils!  
**_ _ **You have acquired Tyrians weapons. You have acquired an Orb of power.**_ _ **  
**_

I felt, rather than saw my nightmares closing in. They sensed, instinctively, how weak I was in that moment.

I surged back to my feet, drawing what I could of my aura to myself, the light burning them and forcing them back.

" **IDEscape,** " I said, and the world went blurry and returned to normal.

I sat down, exhausted, my mana spent, my health drained severely, at the limits of my ability to 'wear the mask'.

Inari saw me, and grew concerned as I almost literally collapsed into her from exhaustion.

Spending somewhere close to a fuckton of mana to pull off two ultimate finishing moves in a row did that to you.

"Did I need to do that? Well, I wanted Tyrian dead as dead can be… and I was outmatched. Had I fought him and spent power wisely, Tyrian would have worn me down and beaten me eventually… I could've called reinforcements, but it's not every day that you meet someone who warrants using something like Unlimited Blade Works. I wanted to push the Big Red Button™ at least once. That's the point of having it, isn't it?"

Inari sighed, and Kasumi brought a small bucket of water Inari had purified, before helping me wash the blood off myself as my skin returned to the normal tanned/olive hue, slowly, with the sensation of itching and having something crawling over my skin. The implants were the only parts that refused, and I wasn't too fussed about them.

I recited a prayer of thanks to Inari in Japanese, thanking her for her assistance and guidance once more.

"Thank you Kasumi, really," I said, scrubbing with a damp rag as Kasumi ladled more water on, both of us making sure to keep the pure water clean.

"You're welcome… now the other side, then wash your mouth," Kasumi said.

"Of course."

I basked in the peace of the situation as, mentally, I stowed my 'war mask', which was the mental equivalent of an actor stepping off the stage, clearing my mind by focusing on the sensation of the cool water flowing not only across my body, but spreading through my body and soul, washing away the tiredness and exhaustion, the dirt, blood, the aches, the pains; and leaving me feeling whole and safe and well in its passing, achieving some semblance of inner peace for a moment, before I would have to disturb this feeling of Zen and thrust myself back into my world of work and politics and people.

I'd found that simple moments like these were like a soothing balm for my soul, and I wanted to make the most of it.

"Cobalt?"

My eyes snapped open, my Zen shattered in a single moment.

"Oh… fuck," I said as I saw Velvet, who I remembered had agreed to accompany me for this visit.

* * *

 **Okay, first thing's first: I have not watched Fate/Stay: Night.  
I kinda want to, but I've haven't had a moment where I'm sat down and thought "Y'know, I should try and watch some of the anime and movies on my to-do list." since One Punch Man came out.**

 **That said, after watching the evolution of Bahamut throughout the Final Fantasy series, and seeing Ultima Blade in FFXV, it struck me Cobalt could do that… and not long after, I realised I was describing Unlimited Blade Works from F/S:N, and with his engineer/ blacksmith/ architect background, Cobalt kinda had a 'theming matchup' as a weaponsmith. He's just aping something cool he saw, he's not using the actual Unlimited Blade Works.**

 **As for describing the weapons themselves, think glass weapons from Skyrim.**


	70. Recovery and stuff

**Sorry for the late upload… I've been distracted with playing Rimworld (which sucks down hours by the quarter dozen) and a 'side story' or two… I haven't got more than opening chapters for them both to show for it, though.**

 **But, y'know, better late than never, right?**

* * *

I sighed… this was going to be a heckuva explanation.

"What's she- what's going on?"

"Okay, first and foremost, that was Tyrian, of no known last name. He's part of a group who recent intel suggests are in control of the Grimm… maybe they serve a higher entity, maybe they don't, who knows. We do know for certain that Cinder Fall was a member of this cult. I promised Tyrian, in his last moments, that I would hunt down the last three known members one by one and slay them all," I said. "The fight to get him there, however, was an intense, destructive bout, and I was just ready to collapse and sleep for a week when I got back… the water and ritualistic washing myself is based on Shinto beliefs and traditions about purity and cleanliness- basically that it's next to godliness, like that old quote- combined with the magical healing the Kitsune is capable of with a little running water to form a symbolic 'river' to literally wash away the aches and pains… and the simple tranquility of it all… it does wonders for the mind, body and soul."

Velvet nodded. "And the..."

I glanced and noted that I was still some frightening monster with metal skin and six arms.

"You know how I said I was unearthly kin to the gods?" I asked. "Basically I kinda 'embraced' that for a moment during the fight, so I could lay down a six-handed smackdown. All I need is some time to recover a somewhat 'normal' form… It's something of an imperfect 'true' form, It's perfectly alright, and everything will be business as usual in a few moments, once my skin grows back."

I stopped to consider what I'd just said.

"That's not a sentence you hear every day, is it?" I quipped.

"No, definitely not," Velvet said.

"Well, good to know I'm not totally bonkers just yet," I said.

"Says the person who shrugs of impalement like it's nothing." Akatsuki pointed out

"Firstly, and I can't believe I missed the golden opportunity to say this the first time around: It's just a flesh wound" I said, before producing a jar with a few coins in the bottom, labelled 'Monty Python Reference Jar', before adding a coin to the collection.

"Secondly, I have concentrated shots of health potion hidden in ampoules in my back and arm rigged to the central computer, which I've interfaced with gamer. The second my health drops below 25%, it automatically administers a shot… there's others near those that have mana potion, and others with stamina, though both are fewer in number than the health ampoules, they still vastly increase my available reserves by a large factor, and lastly my body recovers as soon as you pull the sword out thanks to Gamer's Body… fact of the matter is, it's scary to see someone survive a point-blank canon shot to the face with nothing more to show for it than a slight stumble, the words 'critical hit' in fading red and that smile… that crazed, unhinged smile, that tells you he knows what happened, that tells you that you just fucked up, and the smile that promises pain without end," I said.

"Maybe you should've become a bard?" Midori suggested.

"I am a true-to-life thespian, my dear, an actor of the highest calibre… and whilst I play all of the roles of Nick Cage, solely that of himself playing an archetype, I am nonetheless putting on a show when I step into the arena just as surely as if I step onto a stage." I said "and on either stage I sing the tune, dance the dance and recite my lines, wearing a mask for all to see. I may not be a harlequin as my primary class, but the mindset and poeticism of the class permeates a lot of what I do."

"You're saying it was an act?" Velvet asked

"Well, I wasn't going to sing and dance to _his_ tune, and that meant I needed to put him off balance… since his schtick is being totally unhinged, I acted unhinged as well, and then I became a being of incredible and frightening power, I unveiled scary new forms, told him I was a Daemon Prince, showed him the arena I'd built in an instant and populated with every living nightmare I could think of… and I played my part, I told him it was futile to resist, and when everything he had wasn't good enough, I showed him I could go one better, and though he went down fighting admirably, barring the coup de grace, I still won."

I took a deep breath "I played mind games with him, as Tyrian no doubt loved to do with his victims, and I served him a heaping dose of his own medicine… I am a masquer, a man who makes his living pretending to be is something he is not… and I have all of Remnant running around on a merry chase with the greatest, grandest con you or I have ever seen."

"That's not true," Velvet said. "You're doing a world of good for people, even if they won't admit it."

"Really? Because there's been a number of times already when I'm greeted in… _certain_ places, the second word is either 'off' or 'you'," I said.

"That's funny, I saw a small girl leading one of those Terminators you were so fond of by the hand, calling him 'Mr. Bubbles' the other day. She seemed pretty happy"

I blinked before laughing like an absolute loon.

"Oh- oh- oh, that is _rich_ ," I said, trying to suppress the giggles. "Not- not you, I don't doubt you're telling the truth… just… She called him Mr. Bubbles? Did he have a drill on his hand?"

"Now that you mention it, yes, he di-" Velvet began, before being cut off as I burst into laughter once more.

"I… I need to show you a little something called Bioshock, Velv… I had no clue we had a Little Sister running about… hold up, I wanna check this, meet them face to face," I said, before fetching my sunglasses.

It didn't take long for my omnitool to find and display the correct profiles. "Okay, I've got him, Mr. Bubbles… oh dear…"

"What?"

"Mr. Bubbles found little Amelia Rossi during the invasion, and was unable to save her parents... who died in front of her… By all reports, the girl's all but latched onto him now, like a gargantuan, heavily armoured, ridiculously deadly safety blanket, and doesn't travel more than a few metres from him without suffering anxiety and panic attacks- and it's specifically the imposing 'warframe' she's grown attached to, as we tried a more civilian-suited 'lifeframe' and she didn't like it and asked for Mr. Bubbles to return to the 'suit that let him protect her from the bad things'… that dependency was grounds to release him from active duty, so he could tend to the girl, and see about supporting and taking care of her... we'll be waiting a few months for the scars to heal a bit before we throw her through counselling to try and help her cope a bit better," I read out.

Velvet looked mortified.

"The hope is that she'll make a recovery, and will be among the first to become a full resident up here… She's being homeschooled by the Aristotle program, putting her through her three R's, and currently displays an avid curiosity about everything, even if it means dragging Mr. Bubbles all over the place… says she wants to grow as big and as strong as Mr. Bubbles to fight the bad men herself… expectation is that she'll likely become a huntress, and with some counselling and guidance, could become quite the hero," I continued.

"That's almost- almost like-" Velvet started.

"Like your backstory?" I suggested.

Velvet nodded.

"Well, I'm certain it'll do her a world of good to talk to a kindred spirit," I said. "thanks, Inari, but I think I'll get dressed and head over to check on young Miss Rossi."

Inari nodded, and I quickly donned my shirt, armour and coat, before leaving the shrine and setting a course for Amelia and Mr. Bubbles.

* * *

A knock on the door preceded the sound of tiny feet running across the carpet.

"I'll get it."

The door opened, and I found myself looking down at a girl, no older than 12.

"Who is it?"

I crouched down to meet eye to eye with Amelia.

"Hello, Amelia. My name is Cobalt Jinn, perhaps you've heard of me: I more or less built Mr. Bubbles."

"General."

I looked up to see a hulking behemoth of a Templar, who could already be described as hulking behemoths to begin with. In Templar black-and-white, his warframe bore the ultra-heavy Aegis-pattern Heavy Siege armour, which gave him the profile of a living tank, looking kind of like a 'real human bean' with arms and legs the size of small tree-trunks bolted on at the sides, and pauldrons that you could cut a neck hole in to create a one-and-a-half-inch-thick breastplate. The visage I was greeted with, that of a sci-fi 'close helmet'.

"To what do I owe the honour?" Mr. Bubbles asked.

"Velvet mentioned seeing you two, and since I found the idea of a small girl leading one of my biggest, meanest brands of super soldiers around by the hand hilarious, I just had to come see for myself," I said.

"Don't make fun of Mr. Bubbles!" Amelia said.

"Oh, I'm not, I'm not."

"Mr. Bubbles isn't mean."

"No, no he isn't, and I'm glad for that," I said. "Mind if I come in? As much fun as squatting out here is, it's a lot more fun indoors with tea and biscuits."

"Mr. Bubbles?"

"He's fine," Mr. Bubbles said, rising from his position in front of the TV. "He was the one who said we could stay together."

"You were?"

"I do remember signing release papers mentioning something like this…" I said. "So, yeah, I guess I did."

"You guess?"

"I was a busy having a chuckle at the name you gave him," I said.

Amelia pouted.

"So, I dropped by to see how life was treating you," I said. "may I come in?"

"Alright, but no funny business," Amelia warned me.

"It was the furthest thing from my mind," I said. "No one messes with Mr. Bubbles if they know what's good for them."

"Right," Amelia said before going to fetch the tea.

* * *

"So, uh... how are things for you?" I asked. "Adjusting nicely and all?"

Amelia nodded, warily.

I pondered that for a moment, before realising I was still wearing several things.

I snapped my fingers. "Oh, right, how terribly rude of me: I'm still wearing my sunglasses… sorry, I had my vision improved a lot, but it's left a bit of a mark, so I wear them to kinda not freak people out too much."

I removed my sunnies and blinked as my eyes readjusted, before removing my gauntlets, coat and cuirass, resting my glasses on my gloves and stashing my coat and cuirass in my inventory.

"There, now I don't look like I'm ready to march off to war," I said.

"How did you make them disappear like that?" Amelia asked.

"Do you play videogames?" I asked in return.

"Sometimes… why?"

"Because that's my semblance: I'm a videogame character," I said. "I learn skills via books, have an inventory and equip screen to shuffle gear and gadgets around and stow them away when I'm not using them, I level up, I assign point to stats to improve my body and mind, everything… all in all, I can do an entire laundry list of things that people have as their entire semblance."

"Really?"

"Best of all, if I feel so inclined-"

 _ **Would you like to join Party: "I can share my semblance with others" ?**_

"Go on, press the button, it's really there, but no one else but you or I can see it or touch it."

Amelia did so, and gazed in wonderment.

"What is all this stuff?"

"That's what I see every waking moment of every day, you can see not only your Heads-Up display, or HUD for short, which contains a lot of valuable information, but also my name, my title and my level. This is only the beginning. Lets you and your powers grow with no end, and, whilst in this system, if you can get off the ground, you can go from 'total rookie' like yourself, to being able to 1v1 Mr. Bubbles in a fight and win, to 'living legend' like myself," I said.

"Why would I want to do that?"

"The same reason I did: Because I wanted to help people, end suffering and through great effort and determination, forge a better tomorrow."

"Oh."

"Y'know, I hear you want to become a huntress," I said.

"How'd you know that?"

"I asked Aristotle, and he told me all about his favourite student."

"Ari?"

"Yep."

"You mean he's actually a real person?"

"Yep… I put him together myself, and he's passed every turing test I've thrown at him, and then some."

"Wait, you- what?"

"Artificial Intelligence… Aristotle was built, like Mr. Bubbles; but- like Mr. Bubbles- he's a real person as well," I said. "I've tested both of them, repeatedly, and they've more than proven they are exactly like 'real' people. There's a armoured vault in a secret place on Outer Heaven where a heavy-duty supercomputer about as big as you resides, on that computer is Aristotle, and from that computer Aristotle contacts you each morning."

Amelia looked amazed.

"Anywho, I remember seeing you were twelve. I reckon I can make things happen if you still want to be a huntress the next time your birthday rolls around," I said.

"Really?"

"Really really."

Amelia wrapped me in a hug, somehow moving faster than I could process, and despite the fact it was reinforced, I felt my spine groaning under the force of the hug. My reinforced, stupid-tough spine that was designed to never so much as groan under the pressures involved with playing baseball using a _full_ oil tanker truck as a bat.

I immediately scanned her with observe and looked high and low for anything that might indicate what I would submit in my claim to the department of fuckery.

I was surprised to find that the 'Rule of Funny' counts as a buff.

"You're welcome… now, for want of something better to do, how would you feel about playing some Mario Kart?"


	71. A day in the life

_Edited 1-12-17 -Eaod2000_

* * *

The generators hummed, the manufactories continued to reassemble atoms for fun and profit, and Cobalt noted the coming day when his omnitool chimed out the hourly beep.

Deciding that tonight's all-nighter was at its end, he downed the last of his coffee, long since having gone cold and somewhat disgusting, and saved the 3D blueprint he'd spent the night working on, shutting down the CAD program. The Bahamut would have to wait another day.

He thanked Gamer once again for making food, drink and sleep entirely optional, and shook out the feeling of stillness from his limbs, before gecko-ing his hands to the ceiling and performing a small set of pull-ups, before swinging his legs up and performing squats and sit-ups.

Deciding that his blood was flowing appropriately now, Cobalt checked his guest list, and- finding Velvet had decided to sleep in her own room instead of his tonight- made his way to his room to freshen up and change his outfit.

From there, Cobalt began to travel to the commercial district, where- interrupting one of the main streets with a large dedicated plaza, complete with simulated skydome- was an 'outdoors' marketplace, filled with street carts, generally selling street food of various cultures. Nearly everything you could imagine was here.

* * *

It was still early, but the robotic vendors perked up as I walked past, the Mr. Handies starting the various grills, fryers, boilers, hot plates and steamers, in anticipation.

Eventually I went with something called a 'Bing', which was a wrap made from a thin wheat pancake that had been coated with a thin layer of egg and filled with meat and, like, three different types of lettuce and shredded carrot. Not a typical breakfast choice, but as far as junk food went, it beat the shit out of most of my home cooking.

I made a quick mental note to pick up a number of recipe books to put into my cooking skill. Eating the same, very simple, foods over and over again was starting to wear on me.

I paid the vendor and sighed as I found a bench to sit and eat my food, wishing more people would attempt to open businesses up here… most of these places were still for sale, and, as far as I could tell, dirt cheap after the rebate… like, 90% discount.

I was even throwing in the Mr. Handy staffing the place.

I'd gotten word that a few people had actually decided to stay here, and were looking for work. Remembering that fact brought a smile to my face.

I was trying to encourage Enterprising Entrepreneurs, because if Outer Heaven wanted to ever get off the ground economically or have that 'human touch' I so desired, I'd need them to set up shop.

I was also putting out feelers, looking for inspired street artists capable of doing large murals, to try and break up the bleak grey and white of the walls.

I sat and watched the sunrise until the first few early birds with the same Idea as me began to arrive.

I got a few nods and waves and I returned them where I could. Mostly from People who had figured out I was the reason they weren't waiting for the burners to warm up, as it was still early.

I decided to move on when someone gave me a not so friendly greeting, ending in 'you'. He didn't touch me, few people did after the third one, when they figured out the rules for this sort of thing: Say what you will, I'll just ignore you, but if you're being a little shit and you touch me, I'll break it off and write you a ticket for a free replacement.

I made my way to a bookstore, and found Tukson, of all people, up here

"Tukson?!"

"Yes? Who is it- you!"

"Me. Yes, me," I said, cursing the now-automatic response. "How're you doing?"

"What do you want?" Tukson asked, in a manner and tone I marked as wary and cautious.

"Believe it or not, I'm here to shop this time. No randomly kidnapping you and spiriting you half the world away this time to save you from an unjust death at the hands of two little psychos, just me and a need for a few good recipe books," I said as I went to browse the shelves.

"That's it?" Tukson asked.

"I realised that I barely knew any recipes when grabbing breakfast, and decided I had to rectify that… after all, I'm supposed to be effing fantastic at everything."

"You?"

"Well, alright… I'm not going to lie, a good part of it is to impress my Girlfriend."

Tukson rolled his eyes as he rung up my selection.

"Thanks man… and, y'know, sorry."

"When... _everything_ happened, I had a look at what you were doing… I don't necessarily agree with what you did, but you… you saved my life."

"All part of the job, man. I'm all about making sure good people keep their heads firmly on their shoulders and in once piece," I said. "You remember what I said about the prophetic vision, right?"

Tukson nodded.

"Yep, well, they've held true so far… say, last time I saw you, you were in Vacuo. What gives? How in the sam hell did you get up here?"

"You weren't exactly subtle setting up those bases"

"Wait, _that_ was _you_?!" I said. "By the nine, I'd never seen anyone with such ironclad clangers.

"I'm sorry?"

"One day, not long after the invasion, I get a report saying someone talking the most outrageous smack right to a Marine's face was demanding to get to Outer Heaven. I was laughing so hard, and he was so determined that I let him come up, but I never got his name though… that was seriously you?"

"You're not the only one who can act."

My eyebrows rose in surprise

"Well, congrats on spotting that… I suppose I should give you a medal or something, because you're the first," I said, holding up a book "Perhaps I should show you something in return?"

 **You have found a recipe book: Eat This! A Cooking bible for hunters on the go (Vols 3,4,5)**

 **Will you learn these recipes?**

The books fragmented into a thousand motes of golden light like so many others, and I felt the knowledge assert itself.

"What the hell was that?"

"I consumed the knowledge within the books. I can cook every recipe in them now, with the full might of my cooking skill… which isn't totally great, but I can still make a lot of tasty things decently well."

Tukson looked skeptical.

I chuckled and checked something on my glasses.

"This is the same ability that let me design the Mr. Handy currently doing the numbers in your backroom."

"What- how?"

"Sunglasses that double as a telecoms device," I said. "They're not just to hide my eyes."

Tukson crossed his arms and shook his head

I then produced the books I'd just 'eaten'

"Here, Instant copies. Feel free to take 'em; I already know them cover to cover. Go double your money" I said, before walking out

* * *

I dropped by the academy, and saw that the class there were abiding by their training. Most of them were pretty good or already hunters in training, though the points they were earning seemed to spur them on amazingly well.

I didn't want to disturb them too much, so I merely stuck to the observation decks as they ran fitness courses, and used and abused Gamer to its fullest.

People like Neo and Jade, who were not ultra-tough hoo-rah hunters before had picked up the slack now, and were running the long-distance fitness courses and performing the exercises like seasoned pros, leaving some of the less determined in their dust, which made me proud like you wouldn't believe.

Some of them noticed me, and began whispering amongst themselves.

I noted that I was apparently a subject for rumours and moved on. I would have to find out what rumours, exactly, later.

* * *

"So, Ghira, a moment."

"Cobalt? To what do I owe the… pleasure."

"Ghira, first off, no need to sugarcoat it, you don't like me, I'm well aware of it, I haven't been a model of human nobility either… and I'm from a very low-class background. Kindly tell me to fuck off, mate, it works wonders," I said.

Ghira glared at me.

"Okay, and I'm here today to ask your permission to produce a great work," I said.

"Come again?"

"Okay, so you know how I put all those satellites up in space to provide a network for the internet that couldn't be blown up or shot down and are much harder to hack than a CCT?" I asked.

"Not really, but let's say I do."

"Well, I did, and the object was, firstly, so communications could never be cut off from another kingdom without some sort of large-scale jammer… secondly I made it free, and gave it near-global coverage so no matter where you were, you could talk to the entire world if you wanted to," I said. "The idea was, in part, to bring people closer together."

"Okay, so… you want to build an antenna?"

I held my hand up horizontally in a 'so-so' gesture.

"What I had in mind was bigger and far grander in scope and design… I've got a project I'm working on, Project: Golden Throne, which is supposed to utilise sub-dimensional tunneling to provide quick, easy and- most importantly- 100% safe transit between the kingdoms… and anyone else who wants a gate put up in their village," I said.

Ghira looked interested, but cautious. "What is it you want?"

"A plot of land- and your permission- to build a large gate nexus which would manage gates in all the outlying villages on Menagerie and also act as a gate itself that you can drive cargo-bearing vehicles through," I said, raising my hand to project a hologram of a large, curved spire across from another one that was way smaller, bearing a shimmering wall of light between them, that people, cars and trucks were emerging from. Everything went to a wireframe that showed a tunnel leading to a gate in the capitals of each of the four kingdoms as well as smaller tunnels to various locales around Menagerie.

"That's basically it. We've got our own resources and manpower, we could do it 100% without any assistance from you, unless you would insist on that… if you want, we can even redesign the aesthetics to match with everything else here."

"Why would I want you building this here, in my kingdom?" Ghira asked.

"The idea is to bring everyone, in all the kingdoms, closer..." I said. "...and to make travel to my kingdom something everyone can do, not just the privileged."

Ghira rolled his eyes.

"Hey, you know as well as I there's something in it for me, and my major policy _is_ honesty," I said. "A little trust, a few good intentions, and telling people what they need to hear. The last thing I need to do is to lie and backstab people… people hate me enough as-is"

Ghira nodded. Even he could agree with that.

"Anywho, this would prove a major boon, methinks, you get a satellite uplink point, basically a CCT for the new network that's not running on jury-rigged tech, and you get the first gate, barring the one in Outer Heaven we've been using to dig the tunnels, and instant and unlimited access to the other kingdoms. Just say yes, and where, and we'll do all the hard work, at no more cost than the land you put it on."

Ghira glared at me, turning it over in his head. There were few doubts that I could probably do it in his mind, but he was also considering the impacts and how his people would fare.

I stood there, not returning his intense stare, and not appearing intimidated. I was calm and cool and collected.

"...I'm not sure we can put it anywhere," Ghira said.

I felt the tension fly out of me at that. "Could you spare a little beach for us to construct a Jetty, then? Perhaps we could build an extension to the harbour, so people get that absolutely gorgeous view you get as you walk off the boat," I suggested.

Ghira crossed his arms and gave me a look I had a hard time quantifying. "As much as I don't like you, if you pull this off..."

"Thank you, sir, you won't regret this," I said, reaching out to shake Ghira's hand. "The Kingdoms can only become stronger by coming together and cooperating."

Ghira grunted and shook my hand.

I stood, bowed, "Oh, and, uh, I brought a somewhat exotic pet that I was keeping for Blake whilst we got her obedience trained… just, uh, letting you know and all that."

"What sort of pet?"

"Nothing much, just a large jungle cat… completely friendly and docile, I assure you… just, y'know, cats and playing."

"Right. I suppose I should see this." Ghira said, standing

* * *

"Hey, Blake, you forgot something when you came down here" I said

"What would that be?"

I whistled sharply and waited… and waited

"What was the point of that?" Blake asked as I felt Ghria's eyes boring into the back of my skull

"She should be here by now" I said, furrowing my brows "Unless… ok, just look away from the trees for three seconds."

I turned my back on the surrounding trees and counted to three, before whirling around just in time to catch a blue-green jungle cat/bat/parrot/dragon hybrid in the midst of pouncing me.

Echo had grown dramatically since she'd appeared in Outer Heaven, and with her new weight, her habits were going to be the death of me.

"Echo! Echo, get down!" I said, forcing the husky-sized monster off my chest

"Echo?" Blake said, not believing her eyes

"She grew quite a bit, huh?" I said, standing up again "They're starting to outgrow what Outer Heaven can do for them, and the hive's getting sick and tired of depositing them in the lost and found every time they get lost in the maintenance hallways… and I'm getting sick and tired of picking them up just for them to escape and get lost again… besides, Nargacuga are natural-born jungle predators, even when they can't turn invisible. She'll love it here, and well, I meant it when I said she was yours. I already have Uruloki to deal with, and when he decides he wants to be a handful… oy vey."

Echo was rubbing her head against my leg as I said this.

I just shook my head and scratched her under the chin, where she loved it, and Echo began to purr like a motorbike sitting on idle.

"I'll foot her foot and litter bills, don't you worry about that, all you need to do is the actual feeding and to love her and pet her and… you get the idea. She should be housetrained and obedience trained… if you want her to become the silent huntress of the night, though, that's on you. I have a book you can read about that… and, yeah..."

"Mind if I ask where you got this… Nargacuga from?" Ghira asked

"Don't rightly know. Blake can corroborate the story, but she and a baby of two other species showed up in a cardboard box after the Invasion of Vale"

"Right."

"As you know, I already have a dragon, and… well, Outer Heaven's a space station. Space is ironically at a premium, and three twenty-plus-metre juggernauts is a bit much. I was holding onto the munchkins long enough to get 'em trained up enough that they could respond to commands… helps when you can use a book and my semblance to teach them english." I said

"What is your semblance?"

"Learning semblance. It gathers information like a pro, telling me all about you, me, that tree, everything… I have no fewer than four Ph.D's because of it, and I can put it in reverse to teach people… books are a handy medium, I can produce copies of books I know, and my semblance allows one to absorb the book and gain the knowledge held within… so, y'know, I spent all of three minutes memorizing my textbooks at Beacon, before acing the tests. I found a book designed to teach small children english and used copies to teach the little ones perfect english. Echo might lack the vocal capacity to actually talk, but she can understand us as well as you or I can, can't you?"

Echo nodded in response.

"It also explains why I'm an irreverent asshat: I'm too smart for my own good."

"That's certainly one way to put it." Ghira quipped

"I like to reason that I could go from asshole to just being a flat out cunt. I am trying to help, I'm not just screwing people over in some bid for power."

"Ri~ight." Ghira said, right as my watch beeped

"We could get into details, but that is my lunch break, and I keep a tight schedule, so I'm afraid this is farewell. Toodles."

"Uh… bye." Blake said

"No, Echo, this is your new home now." I had to remind Echo "I'll visit, don't you worry. I just can't always be around to see you all the time. Blake's supposed to be looking after you, not me, remember? We agreed Outer Heaven was getting too small for you."

Echo still looked sad

"This isn't goodbye, merely see you later. We'll meet again, and we'll have a grand old time when we do." I said "Behave yourself, and try not to scare the locals, okay?"

Echo barked an affirmative and trudged over to Blake

"I hate long goodbyes, but here goes: Goooooooodbyyyyyyyyye."

All three present facepalmed, and I disappeared with a smile and a flash of light.

* * *

"What are you doing?" Ruby asked, seeing me play a VR game

"What the fu- When did you get here?! Wait, scratch that, _how_ did you get here?" I asked, immediately fiddling with the large bulky headset.

"You gave us those VIP cards that take us here," Ruby said.

"Those still work? I thought that 'unzipping' the subspace pocket would do funny things to automatic teleports like that," I said.

"Must not," Ruby said.

"Anywho, I've got a videogame running through these," I said, before waving my omnitool and turning on the TV, which turned itself to the videogame input and waving around the headset to show her the VR simulator I was playing.

"Neat. So, what is this?"

"I'm just playing around with minigames here… since most of the sports and activities stuff these things normally let you do, like wingsuit gliding, boxing, fencing, shooting, rock climbing and all that is pretty much my day job, and it just loses all the fun and excitement… I mean, I _could_ tap into the Templar training sim and… actually, you know what? Why don't I show you that?"

"Training simulator?"

"Basically I pirated a military training sim or two, attempted to write a mod that put all the unique stuff about Remnant in with custom models and using actual combat data to program the NPC AI's, failed absolutely miserably, got Charles to figure it out, and then used that to rapidly train 'hot off the presses' Templar to a passable standard… there are literally thousands of minds in here, and we skim the top few off once there's a decent stable of warriors and bodies for them to fill, and then put them out in realspace, where they become regulars."

"Wow."

A wave of my omnitool made the TV shut off and retract into the floor as certain panels in the ceiling retract to reveal hologram projectors, and a neutral male voice announced 'Initiating mixed reality gameplay', as three of the four sides of the main room showed projected screens.

I replaced the headset on my face as a number of 'kinesis' gravity manipulators lifted me a few inches off the ground and then projected a much more slippery surface to walk, run and jump on.

A loading bar appeared, signifying that I was logging in and then loading the environment.

"Even with all this tech, there's still a wait time," I muttered.

"At least it's fast."

"There is that." I conceded

Soon I was boots on ground, and Ruby saw that I was in a wooded area on a mountain.

I reached up to the side of my head with a controller and spoke into the 'radio'.

"This is Reagent- plus one- to all callsigns: status report, where are the bogeys."

There was a quick burst of excited solresol, as only one person had the Reagent callsign.

"It's good to have you with us, sir. Long time no see."

"Is this the same Alpha 1-1?" I asked.

"It is indeed." Alpha 1-1 replied

"I'd have thought you'd be out by now." I said

"You know me, sir." Alpha 1-1 said "these guys would be lost without me"

"King Raven still a bitch?" i asked

"Yessir."

"Well, where's the bogey?"

I got a string of coordinates back.

"What's keeping us up?"

"Heavy defenses, Sir, we can't get anywhere near it before the Grimm overwhelm us."

"Right, well, I'll arm up and meet you there… Argus, if you can, add in the new Siegebreaker."

"As you wish, sir."

"Siegebreaker, sir?"

"Brand spanking new, boys," I said. "Positions are open for new drivers, so same deal: Drive it, excel, and we'll make you a machine spirit."

More excited solresol.

I armed up, starting with a light, short-ranged 'pilot's loadout': Two pistols, one plasma, one bolt, spare mags/energy cells, a few grenades, and the keys to a new siegebreaker.

Ruby was practically drooling as I approached my new vehicle.

Six treads, twin-barreled turret, and two heavy machine guns, all angry destruction.

And then I climbed in, gravity manipulation simulating the seat as I made my way to the cockpit, and signalled for the Thunderbird to descend and take me to the fight.

After an hour of boring flying as I reviewed what each handle, lever and trigger and switch did, and where the rangefinder was on this one-man automated tank, I was near the fighting, where it was plain to see the Marines were getting repelled pretty hard by a large hive.

Beowolves swarmed over the Terminators, pinning them down as Ursae pulled and tugged at their limbs or attempted to tear plates off. Regulars were fighting desperately in clumps, but it was safe to say they weren't faring well, and the skies were a constant dogfight for dominance against Griffons and Nevermores.

I was a ways back, on a ridge overlooking the entire scene.

"Okay, Ruby, this thing is invaluable as a mainline assault tank. Heavy armour, twin 90mm railguns, and two twin-linked .50 calibre HMG's to keep the smallfry back… but this is Remnant, baby, that isn't all there is to this puppy; Engaging Siege mode."

I pulled a lever, and a red light started flashing. The Turret straightened and several loud clangs were heard as the turret switched mechanisms and ammo, and the sound of straining servos as the sideskirts of the middle set of tracks opened up and the track itself retreated under the tank as a large foot reached out and plonked itself on the ground, before the turret enlarged and the two railguns charged up as two separate prongs of one giant rail canon to make way for the 120mm artillery projectiles and the legs lifted the tank until it was a stationary, hexapod artillery platform.

"Everybody! Respawn and form up, I need someone keeping the mobs off me whilst I lay down the hurt! And someone get the Triple-A tanks up behind us, in case those Nevermores get any funny ideas." I commanded as I thumbed an ability to 'call for reinforcements' (read: respawn the waiting queue)

I heard several affirmatives before I focused my attention on the scope, which was linked to an overhead satellite and could highlight where best to put my shots.

"Three going out, watch your heads! Danger close!"

There was a deafening roar as the rail-cannon accelerated the projectile to hypersonic speeds, followed by another two. Seconds later, there was an answering, godalmighty roar and a massive explosion.

"Good effect on target, blast the shit out of them, sir!"

"Don't need to tell me twice, son, readjusting… firing!"

I looked back, and Ruby had stars in her eyes.

"Alright folks, I'm going to hand the controls off to someone else so they can have a shot."

"Who are they?"

I gave Ruby the headset, and adjusted the straps and microphone, the gravity manipulators letting me down as the avatar idled.

"Introduce yourself."

"Uh… hi, I'm Ruby Rose."

There was a lot of excited chatter in response.

"The General's told us all about you."

"Those photos of his made you look really cute!"

"The Grimm Reaper herself! Boys, get ready to clean house!"

Ruby looked at me, scared.

" _There's a_ girl _on Xbox Live_!" I quoted. "Sorry Ruby."

"I've just never had someone excited to meet me."

"Well, after I told them about you, I had to add folding scythe blades as a sniper rifle attachment by popular demand," I said. "You're like Pyrrha to these guys."

Ruby looked faint.

"Sir, can you add a custom model?" one of them asked.

"I dunno, are you gonna use it? It'd fit you," I said.

There was a round of 'oohs' and 'burned, dude'.

"Okay, when you're ready, try not to kill my men. The sim assumes you're a templar, so it's just you and your armour. No aura, no semblance, doing it rough and tough… and, uh, try not to mind so much if you die, these guys are mostly software, so they can move to a new warframe as their internals are compromised, and you'll do the same when your character dies."

"What?"

"The thing about robots, is that if the body dies, if you can do it fast enough, the intelligence driving the body doesn't die. The 'soul' is immortal."

Ruby was lifted by the gravity manipulators.

Five minutes later, I was seriously considering offering Ruby a position as an Artillery Captain. Once she figured it out, I'd swear Ruby was secretly doing something to her luck stat, because some of those shots were literally one-in-a-million, between the wind-drift, the armoured hides she was shooting around and the friendlies she should have, by all rights, hit.

"If that's what you do with arty, I need to get you an Exitus," I said. "Because I would both love and hate to see what you do with the platonic ideal of a precision rifle."

Ruby perked up. "Really?"

"I've got a loadout saved. Any of you boys want the tank, feel free… Ruby, if I can have a controller."

"Uh, sure."

I took the offered controller and held a button combo that bailed on the character in the tank, who was quickly snapped up by someone waiting for a respawn, before we reappeared in the respawn area.

I directed Ruby to the loadout, and simply said "Impress me."

* * *

 **HA! I did it on time this time!**

 **what do you mean it's ten-past-one in the morning?! NO!**

 **Chapter was supposed to be a sort of 'daily life' thing.**

 **Didn't end that way, but I think I got something resembling that anyways.**


	72. Upgrades and a fuckup

**Okay... so, people... well, they didn't outright hate the chapter, but... well...**

 **people like zen-aku the spirit of the wolf** **put it best:**

"ok wow, he did not deserve that, I understand it held great sentimental value but she took out his eye and left a massive scar on his face. it's a weapon not her family, if he took out her eye the way she did she would be even more upset, cobalt is putting too much stress on himself about his actions and many of his actions have been put under too much disapproval and scrutiny many of his actions are that of a military general, he hasn't done anything particularly bad only jarring"

 **Well, yeah but Weiss was, like, beyond angry at-**

Randomfanboy2077: "im gonna be honest this kinda feels off like she nearly killed and did wounded him quite badly something that no-one would take lightly like Velvet or Blake you think they would be horrified or angry even at her actions I mean she nearly killed him and yeah he's shrugged this off before and what he did stepped over a line but her nearly killing him would cause some kind of reactions right?"

 **okay... yeah... but-**

hirshja :

"This seems... off. Like yea cobalt could've handled it better, but the real errror is in how you as the writer handled it. Cobalt is trying to get her to use her light saber more. Alright, fine. instead of breaking her personal property, he should've asked her. Alright, fine. But what really bothers me is how out of character this chapter is for everybody.

You've spent the last 15 chapters or so having cobalt be super worried that he was gonna do something Dickish and prepping everyone for it just in case it happens, and then, out of the blue, he does something super dickish. That's OOC

Weiss knows the gravity that scarring someone holds, and she also knows the capability of the light saber to cut through everything. She was clearly intending to scar him, otherwise she wouldn't have said what she did, so in truth, she was intending to cut out her eye. That's OOC.

Everyone at the station is remarkably calm about this whole thing on both ends, meaning not as pissed at either cobalt OR weiss as they should be. THATS OOC.

Honestly, it kind've feels like you're artificially prolonging the story at this point be inserting pointless, out of place, or just plain stupid conflicts like this one. Unless you have a plan for how your going to do these, I'd close out the open conflicts without adding any new ones, and then work towards a real ending, because otherwise, instead of going the way of Ryugi with his long-as-hell yet direct plot, you'll go the way of, well, something much worse"

 **...I have fucked up so... so badly...**

 **What have I done.**

 **I'm going to take all of this to heart, and take down Chapter 72, and rearrange some scattered plot points into something WAY more coherent and... Well, since I'm fresh out of ideas beyond going super-eldritch and pseudo-religious with Cobalt's organometallic blood, and it looks like we'll take another, like 8 volumes to get Ruby to Killing Salem without her getting kidnapped or something in the source material...**

 **have I ever mentioned how developing alongside your source material is kinda massively shit? because I was hoping for more Dark Council Fights.**

 **So, let's kick this shit into high gear. From this point onwards, Chapter 72 officially NEVER HAPPENED. You never saw anything.**


	73. A whole lotta nothing

_Edited 1/31/17 - Eaod2000_

 ** _I'd just like to go on record at the start of this, to say sorry for missing so many weeks in a row...  
I realise it was a shitty chapter, but the outcry at Chapter 70 really curbed my (admittedly, already flagging) enthusiasm badly._**

 ** _I'm_ not _saying 'don't criticise me', far from it, only an idiot says that. I_** ** _Just felt I should say sorry for being absent for so long, and explain why._**

 ** _I have been working on other shit in the meantime... mostly crossovers with this or that, trying to get myself back in the groove... that, and playing some of last-years big games as they go on sale and come within my (very low) price range. You would not believe the hours a new Total War game eats if you haven't played a grand strategy game yourself, and a concept for an Original Story (yay!)_**

 ** _anywho, you came here to read, not to listen to me yammering on, so, y'know, here goes._**

* * *

"Hey Qrow?"

"Cobalt? What's this about?"

"Just saw something, and thought I should remind you that scorpion tail barbs contain a lot of potentially very deadly venom… now, whilst I've slotted the fucker already because he was 'in' with _The_ Bad Crowd, I kinda don't want you brushing off a 'scratch' from a Deathstalker or something else equally stupid," I said. "That's all."

"That's it? You made an entire scroll call for that?"

"Eeyup. Cartoon you completely missed the remotest possibility that the scorpion faunus' barb was loaded with poison, dismissing it as, quote, 'just a scratch'; so 'you' went to sleep with little more than a bandage and woke up coughing up blue blood… and let me tell you, being a king sucks"

"Har har"

"Just a, y'know, a reminder so I don't have to find my way to the afterlife somehow to slap you silly because you died to something stupid- and you know I'll do that, I will find a way," I said.

"Gee, thanks."

"You're a cool dude, and the world needs more good men like you... and that starts with making sure the ones we have don't die on us," I replied

"Thank you for the concern." Qrow said

"You're welcome. I know it's kinda an inane thing to call about, but it was worrying me to no end and Ruby suggested just telling you to be more careful." I said "also, your niece sends her love."

"Thanks, I guess."

"You're welcome, have fun, remember that you don't have my uber-liver. Ciao."

* * *

"Hey Amber."

"I was wondering when I'd see you again," Amber said.

"Well, it's not like I haven't wanted to talk to one of the seasonal maidens, least of all because I moved heaven and hell to save your soul," I said, before pausing to consider that

"Well, that's not strictly true… I'd written you off, and- apparently wrongly- thought you were beyond my help. I was rather glad to learn that I was wrong when I happened to spot 'you' in amongst all of Cinder, and knew I couldn't just leave you two intermingled like that... and since no one's really talking to me since I fucked up bad- please don't ask, I've got enough on my palette with all my friends avoiding me- I figured, 'fuck it, why not? I've been meaning to'."

"Gee, thanks."

"I'm just telling 'em how I see 'em," I said, lifting a beer and taking a swig "How're you liking the new apartment?"

"Most people work their entire lives to live in a place like this," Amber said. "I'm not sure I like it though."

"Too fancy?" I asked.

"Yeah, kinda," Amber admitted.

I shrugged. "Yeah, it's more like those ultraluxe hotel suites rather than a home… the butler and maid probably don't help much."

"No, they really don't."

I threw back another swig of beer. "That's a shame… I still want to keep you under high security until this thing with Salem's over… and also, like, 5-10% of the reason, to make sure you don't develop any strange cravings for metaphysical energies or souls…" I said.

Amber raised an eyebrow.

"I think I mentioned how you're an unbound familiar now… well, turns out my familiar's a fox, and with a massive magical boost from another being, that gets 'punched upstairs' into the magical Kitsune Fox," I said. "That's significant for a number of reasons."

"Those being?"

"Kitsune, being spiritual entities, feed off of ambient spiritual energy from the elements, things like fire, metal, water, earth, music, knowledge… and to feed off it excessively means to destroy that thing, snuff flame, render earth barren and lifeless, rust metal, drain talent, absorb knowledge… Nogitsune, the evil variant that spurn the laws their goddess, Inari, can be really, _really_ bad news, and a particularly famous example, Tamamo no-Mae, fed off thousands of human souls from the subjects of three empires by convincing their emperors to do it to please their 'favoured concubine', creating entire legends of evil demon foxes who ate people in the process, before being found by Inari's servants and banished to the spirit realm. I want to make sure you weren't 'punched upstairs' accidentally when Lisica burned a tail to create the body you currently occupy," I said.

Amber blinked. "That's… wow."

"Because I'm sworn in to Inari as part of the same package-deal as Lisica, I'm supposed to keep an eye out for Nogitsune and make sure to coax them back into the spirit realm," I said.

Amber raised an eyebrow.

"They're don't like killing their own, even if they're doing such awful things… and Inari'd have my hide if I did more than point the gun at them… I suppose I could show you to her, and she could yea-or-nay it," I explained

"Inari?"

"You ever noticed a shrine somewhere around deck 13?"

"No. I kinda haven't gone much of anywhere," Amber said.

"Well, you're about to," I said.

"About to?"

"Take my hand"

"You're not going to lead me there like a kid, are you?"

"Hardly. There are far more elegant solutions for long distance travel." I said

"Like?"

"Take my hand and you'll find out." I said

Amber nervously took my hand, and promptly regretted it as she felt her being stretching to infinity, then snapping back like a rubber band.

She quickly made use of the offered barf bag.

* * *

"It's hard to tell," Inari said.

"Well, that's helpful," I remarked, before getting a fluffy tail to the face.

"Are you okay there?" Amber asked.

"Just fine," I said as I read an e-book on a holoscreen projected from my wrist, whilst sitting on a camping stool, scrolling by rotating a haptic interface wheel like a 'ink on dead trees' scroll. "I mentioned a thing I read one time in a fanfic and they've done this ever since."

I was referring to Kasumi, Akatsuki and Midori, the three, five and seven-tailed handmaidens, respectively, reading over my shoulder in fox form, Kaz and Kat literally clinging to my shoulder and supporting themselves on my back, whilst Middie was perched with her rear legs either side of my neck and her forelimbs standing on my head.

"If you say so…" Amber said, unsure.

"This is some intricate work, Cobalt… I can't make heads or tails of this, Amber's energy and yours and Lisica's, and then trace amounts of what I'm guessing is Cinder's energy… it's all a hot mess," Inari said, reading the glowing patterns of the spellweave as she made them visible along Amber's body.

"Didn't you say she was omniscient?" Amber said.

"She sees everything, but she doesn't know everything. That's a different god entirely, and he's kinda the sorta cockbite you shoot on sight- pardon my french- given his fetish for mutating people," I said. "Though, watching over the shoulder of every great scientist, engineer, wizard and other great thinkers certainly doesn't hurt, though someone somewhere has to learn something before she knows it… She's also Lord and Master of Kitsune; If someone can recognize a spiritual energy signature relating to Kits, it's her."

"Oh."

Inari furrowed her brows, before a brief glow surrounded her hands, and Inari ran them over Amber's body, not touching her.

"I'm not seeing anything too- oh."

The light had rapidly disappeared into Amber's hand.

"Through the hand… I think this is a case like Lisica," Inari said.

"What does that mean?"

"Cobalt should be the one to tell you about Lisica's appetite"

"That? Oh, yeah, sure: Lisica might be a Tenko, the most powerful and therefore power-hungry of the kitsune, but she doesn't have any of the appetite; because she's got a real body, and isn't spending power manifesting an Avatar or possessing someone. She can and has absorbed spirit energy for a power boost, or to replenish her mana stocks, but her human heritage, and her bond to me, grant her a steady income. She can literally remain on Remnant forever with no bad side effects, no 900 year maximum wait time," I said. "Which is awesome, because I'd rather not kill an Emerald Forest- with no option for regrowth- every month just to keep a part of my soul around."

"Right."

"So, yeah, looks like you just sit at neutral consumption too…" I said. "I should tell you about the more sustainable energy source, though."

"Shoot."

"Kits sometimes feed on people… when they do, it creates a lot of energy… but there are a bunch of caveats: they have to be willing. An unwilling victim will give you a miser's sum, and it's gonna do a _lot_ of damage, damage like what happened to you," I said.

Amber shuddered at the memory.

"However, a lover, who gives it freely, not only barely notices it, if at all, the power gained is mind-boggling, and they get back pleasure to boot… uh, though I should caution against overdoing it: it's been known to leave people unresponsive… so, yeah, Kits are capable of literally mind-blowing sex... if you can court one and it's genuine."

Amber looked scandalized, and I just grinned.

"Sorry, I've been waiting to use that line since I discovered that was a thing… yeah. The effects can be cured, and 'Fox Wives'- because those are a thing that happened/happens a bunch- should learn the recipe for an infusion of Buckwheat that cures the affliction," I added. "Just, y'know, letting you know about all that. I've had to research these guys a whole bunch once I realised I knew fuck-all about Kits, and, well, it might be important."

"That seems like a strange… ability," Amber said.

I shrugged. "Products of one of the old really old religions, like from more than two millennia ago, and the fact that Inari's a goddess of fertility and prosperity, and a patron god of smiths and merchants… typically, that means that we grow rice and rice-related products in giant amounts up here, and merchants should prosper up here thanks to her blessings, in exchange for some of the rice and money we make."

"Alright, so what's buckwheat?" Amber asked.

"A pseudocereal, it's used like a cereal crop, and it's seeds are starchy and rich in carbs like cereals, but it's not a type of grass like rice, wheat, barley or corn. I had to go digging to find samples to cultivate, roast, grind up and brew teas out of," I said, producing a flask. "Perfectly harmless stuff, really."

When I knocked back a swig to demonstrate its harmlessness, I immediately realised that was a mistake.

"Is there a problem?" Amber asked.

"I'm going to be gone for 30 minutes… don't try and call me, and if anything happens, there's a literal freaking goddess right there." I said before teleporting out.

"What just happened?" Amber asked

Inari smiled "It seems more than simple willpower was suppressing Lisica's normal effects"

"Come again?"

"Cobalt's 'sister' is constantly feeding from his soul." Inari explained "I'll admit, it baffled me for a time… it seems the buckwheat's had an opposite effect on him."

Amber realised what that meant. If it was meant to cure the affliction...

"Cobalt does seem to get himself into these kinds of messes quite easily." Inari said "But it's just so amusing to watch him blunder into these sorts of things it's worth the guilt of not warning him sometimes."

* * *

I shielded my eyes as the vault door opened with the sound of mechanical locks clicking home.

"Cobalt, what are you-"

"Velvet, for the love of god stay back. I took something I shouldn't have and I've got a libido to make an incubus turn green with envy until it wears off" I said "It is taking every ounce of Zen and self-control I can muster to not immediately break these chains, pin you down and ravage you like a wild animal."

"I thought you said you were immune to poisons" Velvet said

"This is an odd interaction of magic and alchemy, not chemistry." I said, straining so hard I could feel the veins bulging, "Alchemical poisons and substances still work, magical poisons still work… just not, y'know, cyanide, ethanol or morphine. Now, unless, you're offering to help me take care of it- and let me inform you now that it will not be gentle or romantic- you will shut that door, lock it, and back away slowly. I can _smell_ you from here, and it is driving me up the wall with how bad I want you."

"Oh- um… okay… I'll just be going now" Velvet said

"I- I'm sorry." I said

"We'll talk about this, later."

Velvet closed the door and I felt the desperation dull somewhat with no target, the images burning through my brain at her presence quieting as I once again began to push them aside and blank my mind. A large part of me wanted to pound on the door and beg Velvet for release, wanted it so badly, but the part with a deathgrip on the controls was going to sit here and weather the storm.

I might've been a man, but I knew that it was the drugs talking, and that giving in to this desire wasn't going to do me any favours with Velvet. This was the sort of thing that tended to result in a lot of mistakes, often dangerous ones.

So I focused, clearing my mind once more, not letting the animal desire beating at the gates of my mind in. Coincidentally, I felt a fiery tingle spread across my mind as I did so, one I'd begun to associate with progress on my psychic potential.

And thus I sat there, a rock amidst the storm, calmly and impassively weathering the storm's fury… and also basking in the warm glow of the old iron drum that I was using as my wastepaper bin, which I'd set alight, again, because it was full. It made a nice focus.

I'd stir the ash through the soil of empty plots in the hydroponics lab later.

* * *

 **I know I said I'd kick things into the endgame, but we've got to catalyse that… because, as it is, Cobalt's waiting with us to see where Dr. Watts and Hazel are, and how they operate before he goes there to pick a fight, and even thinks of dropping fire and fury on Salem. (He will scorch Salem's domain down to bedrock, don't worry).**

 **So, a few bits and bobs before the big announcement.**

 **Also, people have been asking for Ravaora and Lisica, but Cobalt saved both Penny and Amber/Autumn… whichever one's her name.**

 **So, here's what Amber's been doing: a whole lot of nothing… she's not really willing to step outside her house much after what happened, and Cobalt wants to make sure she's safe.**


	74. An apology, and then some silly stuff

_Edited 1/31/17 - Eaod2000_

 **I am very, very, very sorry for making you all wait months for a release.**

 **My long absence has been due mostly to a long saga of illness, which then moved into stress and hysteria-induced illness, because I normally don't get sick, and being sick for a month led to an additonal month of getting over it mentally. And then in my usual bumming around on youtube I find 'Bad Writing advice', and realise one thign "cobalt is a total mary sue... he's basically de-canonised the regular protagonists, and I really, really need to remember to mention exactly how much health being impaled costs Cobalt... I also need to make him not-a-demon, redefine what his skillset is because 'everything' is not an acceptable answer, and fucking do something with Magnus, holy fuck."...**

 **and then my Computer died, the performance bottlenecking severely thanks to a mysterious '100% disk usage error' that seems to have little to do with any programs, and I'm afraid to touch my good, $1000 gaming PC, because I have no fucking clue what I'm doing and don't want to ruin something worse than I already have... I have already heard all the advice, thankyou, please don't bombard my inbox.**

 **Now, Chapter 72 was 'nuked'... however, I feel like Cobalt losing his eye, and making the blunder and Weiss getting very, very angry at him was a good idea. It shows Cobalt overstepping his bounds and realising he made a big mistake... however, the problem with that ENITRE chapter, lay in the fact that the execution was abysmal. I may return one day and give it a better shot, but for now, the mostly-dead character interactions are gone... for now, people are disgusted with Cobalt's decision making, and most of the teams aren't talking to him, he has the eye, and Weiss is totally ashamed for losing control and lashing out in anger and permanently scarring Cobalt.**

 **I'm not 'back' yet... partly because I've realised exactly how badly I've 'lost the freaking plot' and jumped the shark, which has sapped a lot of the 'fun' out, and partly because my editor's become a sort of co-writer for a lot of spin-offs and crossovers and even a new project here and there... most of them are not really going anywhere, but if anyone's curious, I'll see if there's a few first chapters I can post... either way, I'm going to need to work myself up into getting back on the ball.**

 **Eoad2K had this to say: "** I'll be doing my best to help get it written and help improve the plot. You should also set up a poll asking people what they think you should do." and "There will be a future Sequel, called New game Plus that will touch on a lot of Cobalt's issues."

 **Okay, so, since it's been two months, and it's 3:00am as of right now, that poll will have to wait... feel free to leave some suggestions for what the poll options are in a review.**

 **Guest asked: "** i do not review a lot but i had to ask if that wave mosin gun refrence was a nod to star blazers good story and sory for tipe os this is on a reg kindle"  
The Wave Motion Gun- as I know it- is a catch-all term on TVTropes for the BIG gun... it's not a laser, it's not plasma, it's not solid-shot, it fires a big, fuck-off beam of energy that melts entire fortifications/floating islands at a time... that said, the trope's name does indeed come from Space Battleship Yamato and Starblazers.

* * *

"...and so you walk eternally through the shadow realms, standing against evil where all others falter. May your thirst for retribution never quench, may the blood on your sword never dry, and my we never need you again," I said, before snapping the book shut and pocketing it. "Corrax Entries, 7:17."

"Hear hear!" Tiberius shouted, banging his bec-de-corbin against an oversized pauldron to a rousing cheer, before everyone kicked their bikes into gear.

I savoured the roar of the engine for but a brief moment, before, as the tip of the spear, I revved once and took off, flames shooting from my tailpipe and the front wheel lifting off the ground.

When I landed, Immortal Phoenix was lowered and pointed, deadly point aimed for the first Grimm as they charged.

I smiled at how I'd resurrected the storied charges of Heavy Cavalry. This was going to be awesome. And brutal. And bloody. And just as much fun as a night of ultraviolence with the droogs… wait.

I didn't have time to draw more than a similarity before the impact.

Thanks to our weight, and the fact that each bike had either had a storm bolter or a twin-linked plasma SMG between the handlebars, and the armoured ramming plough on the front of the bike, we drove deep into the horde, set the guns to blaze away at full auto and did a donut to gain space, before retreating to have another go.

Barring handful who had been pulled or knocked off their bikes, and were now doing a bang-up impression of a Dynasty Warriors trailer or being summarily pulled apart limb by limb, we were unscathed, whilst there was a large streak of battered, broken and impaled bodies littering the ground behind, dissipating into smoke us as we formed up for another charge.

"Now, Brothers of the Wild Hunt, with me! let's finish this blight off!" I bellowed as I charged once again, the eager Templar barely behind me

"Afternoon, Kali. I'm just here to visit Echo," I said.

"Echo?" Kali asked.

"You haven't seen the blue-green dragon-puma thing running around? It's literally the size of a German Shepherd."

"Uh…. no, I can't say I have."

"Okay, I know she can turn invisible, but it's been a whole week… she can't be that shy." I said

"I'm afraid I have no idea who you're talking about," Kali said

I sighed and pinched the bridge of my nose. "Note to self: If I ever get myself a Nargacuga, grab the standard variant. Invisible juveniles are not two words you want to hear together, ever."

"I- I'm sorry?" Kali asked.

"Sorry, I drifted off… Echo, here girl!" I shouted.

Kali was bowled over as an unseen mass knocked her off her feet.

A quick flash step saw me catching her.

"Oh- ah, sorry. Reflex," I said, as I put Kali on her feet and retreated to a chaste distance.

"It's okay," Kali said.

I turned to Echo. "Bad Echo, knocking Kali over; You know better than that. No treat for you." I scolded.

Echo's ears folded back and she mewled.

"No, not even that face will help you."

Echo intensified the puppy-dog eyes.

"No."

Echo broke eye contact and looked like she felt guilty.

"What… is that?" Kali asked.

"Nargacuga, a type of flying wyvern. Grows to approximately twenty five metres long, almost half that's tail. The metallic azure fur and scales and golden underbelly denote it as the rare and especially dangerous Lucent subspecies, which is known for its extreme durabilty and strength, in addition to such feats as firing entire sprays of toxic barbs from its tail and turning fully invisible… not 'ripple in the air' invisible, but truly invisible. It's fully capable of flight, but does not excel in the skies; instead preferring the shadows, stalking its prey like a puma until it is far too late to respond. Wings are bladed like those knife fans you sometimes see out of Mistral, and the tail is both prehensile, very flexible, very strong and- Echo, can you rattle your tail for me?"

Echo nodded and produced a sound similar to a rattlesnake, shaking her tail side to side. I tossed her a pig's ear, and Echo squealed with delight, pouncing to catch the food.

As she was eating, I followed up with a shake of ground pepper from a dinner set I kept in my inventory. It didn't take long for Echo to sneeze, showing off the barbs on her otherwise smooth tail.

"Dangerous? Well, it's no Dire Miralis or Shagaru Magala…. think of it like hand-raising a big jungle cat from a kitten… or is it a cub? Regular Nargacuga have been successfully tamed before, though, and are a popular exotic pet apparently. I was actually kinda laughing my ass off when, by sheer luck, I find out I gave the jungle cat to the person who lives in a… well I'm not sure what you'd call this, a jungle city? Tamed jungle? Either way I really couldn't think of anyone better to give the puma to… and, uh, not to worry, I've already promised to feed her."

"Uh, thanks."

"No problem," I said, "Thanks for taking Echo in. As much as I'd love to keep her, I've already got Uruloki, and Outer Heaven's really way too small to be keeping dragons."

"Oh."

Blake came dashing out "Echo, you can't just- oh, uh… hi Mum."

"Blake, have you been keeping secrets from me?"

"No?"

"Yes" I interrupted "Imagine my shock when I find out Kali has no clue what a Nargacuga even is."

"It was Sun's idea."

"I'm not going to judge if you don't wanna tell, but your parents."

"No, really, it was Sun's idea for a surprise."

"White Fang or your Parents? Because "

"Why aren't you teleporting?"

"I've got a ribbon-cutting ceremony tomorrow. I was going to take a day off until then," I shouted over my shoulder. "Again, I hope you enjoy your time together."

I continued walking until I heard a giant roar from the harbour.

"What the hell was that?" I asked.

"That's not you?" Kali asked back.

 _ **New Event unlocked: Monster Hunter**_

"Fuck! My Semblance is doing shit again!" I said, before taking two steps and performing an almighty leap skywards, Immortal Phoenix appearing in my hands.

"What?"

As I landed, I felt equal amounts of dread and joy.

My semblance had created an honest-to-god Lagiacrus.

Now, whilst that might induce groans in some, and not seem like a big deal to others, Monster Hunter 3 had been my introduction to the series. The Flagship monster: Lagiacrus.

 _ **Quest Added: Hunt the Lagiacrus**_

I was a flurry of motion, and in seconds I was ready: Barefoot, wearing little of my original attire barring my pants and my cuirass, having exchanged my glasses for goggles and stuck a rebreather in my mouth.

I was armed with a pair of large Kukri machetes and Luna, my moonlight greatsword. Original name, I know.

Blake arrived in time to see the great sea dragon turn to face me.

( **Battle OST - Lagiacrus theme** )

Lagiacrus breathed in, and I leapt from the quayside and into the water to fight the Lagiacrus in its domain before the ball of lightning-'enriched' water could splash me.

The Lagiacrus roared and dove after me.

Blake watched, debating if she should come and try and help. She jumped back as the azure depths lit up once, then twice with flashes of lightning, and she sincerely hoped that Cobalt was okay.

Then the Lagiacrus broke the surface, carrying a whooping, hollering Cobalt with it as he held a death grip on the thing's horns, its teeth and gums bleeding from where Blake realised Cobalt had pulled teeth out.

"Aussie! Aussie! Aussie!" He shouted, laughing like a maniac as his claymore- now a glowing zanbato- swiped once, smashing off half a horn, before Cobalt slid down the creature's serpentine neck and performing a somersault smash on the creature's back, cracking and outright breaking several of the glowing blue organs.

Cobalt continued, before leaping off the creature's tail and onto the quayside beside Blake, where Blake noticed Cobalt was crackling with lightning himself.

"Oi Oi Oi," Cobalt finished, with the widest grin Blake had ever seen on his face, if that was possible.

Cobalt turned and shoved Blake out the way as the now-enraged sea dragon leapt from the ocean, attempting to crush him under its great weight.

Cobalt stood resolute, catching it on the flat of the blade, veins of power glowing along his limbs as he heaved the creature to the side, away from where he'd pushed Blake, and managing to give it a nasty chest gash along the way.

"By the power invested in me by the spirit of Tru Blu, and by the Australian blood in my veins, no bloody croc's gonna put me out to pasture," Cobalt said, the grin never leaving his face. "You're a beautiful sheila, I'll give you that, but don't think that'll stop me."

The Lagiacrus seemed to get even angrier at that.

"What did you do?"

"Besides ringing its head like a gong, bashing it's lightning-producing organs to rubble and pulling teeth out a live crocodile-dragon? I also determined its gender. For shits and giggles, and because I was curious."

"I- what?"

"I wanted to know if I was fighting a King or a Queen of the Seas… and the only way to tell if a croc's a bloke or a sheila is to stick your finger up its scaly cloaca and fell for anything poking you back."

"That's… not normal. Why are you so cheerful about that?"

"I'm a part-time marine biologist," I retorted. "It's my job to know these things."

The Lagiacrus tried to slap Cobalt with its tail, which Cobalt blocked.

"Didn't your mother ever tell you not to interrupt someone when they're _talking?_ " Cobalt said, his sword flashing, and the Lagiacrus lost the last few feet of its tail in a spray of hot blood that coated both Cobalt and Blake.

"Remind me next time that creatures tend to bleed when you cut them," Cobalt said, facepalming.

The Lagiacrus roared at Cobalt, something which had Blake reaching for her ears in an attempt to block out the sound.

Cobalt stood resolute. He simply took a deep breath, as if savouring the moment, and smiled.

"You would not believe how much I have missed hearing that roar… there is a… thing, with video games, especially the ones that make you work and study for your achievements and goals as much as life will, the ones that pit man versus monster in the horribly lopsided equation that represents. It's like a subtle madness, but if you tough it out, and get yourself in deep… almost everything about the game sticks with you, the lore, the weapons, the movesets, the windups and charge times, the monsters you fight, and you learn and memorize every scrap of knowledge and experience will teach you like you've been doing it your whole life. I know every move this monster will make; every quirk, every tell. I know this monster like nothing else out there, and I _love_ this monster, I have fought it a hundred times before I ever picked up this claymore. I don't even need to be a telepath- teep for short- to know what it's thinking before even it does… This creature was one of the creatures that helped forge me into the monster hunter I am today, and to fight a real one is a special treat like no other."

The Lagiacrus coiled up, and Cobalt leapt over the hip-check, _pirouetted_ Out the way of a bite, rolled under a glob of lightning water, backflipped away from a massive electrical discharge that saw arcs of lightning flying every which way.

Cobalt took the initiative then, leaping onto the Lagiacrus' back and slinging the ultra greatsword off his shoulder and keeping it close for a running spin-attack that drove the Lagiacrus' head low and shattered the other horn, before Cobalt tumbled off the creature's head and golf-swung his sword into it's jaw, carving a line into the concrete and hurling his sword skywards, before Cobalt used the Lagiacrus' snout as a springboard to catch his sword and apparently overcharging it so when he brought it down in a meteoric, spinning impact, it unleashed a deafening noise not unlike the ringing of a great bronze bell and a tremendous shock wave that concussed the Queen of the Sea.

The creature collapsed.

Cobalt savoured the moment of victory.

"The ending was never in doubt, and what few complications I had were absorbed by Aura," Cobalt said. "Rest in peace, we'll have you in a better place soon."

"Did you just… kill it?"

"Nope… concussed, minor skull fracture, but she's still alive. Hurting... but I lack the heart to actually slay such a magnificent creature… this thing is just sheer... magnificence… it's... too beautiful for me to destroy… so we'll tie her up and relocate her, treat her injuries and see about releasing her somewhere she can run free." Cobalt said, before his face became a mask of concentration as he puzzled out several details concerning the Leviathan's capture

Blake just sighed and pinched her nose. As she turned to leave, however, Cobalt stopped her

"Not so fast, I need you to help me lift her paw so I can teach her Japanese."

"Why Japanese?"

"Because it amuses me."


	75. NOTICE: Sequels Poll

**Okay folks... I know this isn't the update you hoped for, but I have something else for you: a poll.**

 **Both me and Eaod2000 are hosting a poll on our profiles asking you how you want us to release the sequels/spinoffs to Gaming for Glory... do you wanna see crossover spinoffs first? perhaps you want us to skip straight to New Game Plus and fill you in later? You decide, poll is up on both our profiles, vote how you want.**

 **Voting will likely not be open long, so take some time out to have your say as soon as you can.**

 **Thank you for your time, have a nice day.**


	76. Assorted bits

_**Hello! Just letting you guys know that the Poll has come to a close now. With 43% of the votes, posting the fics in chronological order appears to be the clear victor… so, once all this ends, Cobalt's heading to Rivendell to get stitched back together and begin a long journey on becoming a much better character. If anyone has questions concerning our plans for GfG, you can consult my co-author/editor, eaod2000 for answers in addition to myself.**_

Eaod2k: If you have any ideas, thoughts or concerns, I will be happy to answer them.

* * *

 _Edited 1/31/17 - Eaod2000_ The unveiling ceremony was… pretty normal.

* * *

"...so, it is my great pleasure to take another step in bringing all the nations of the world just one step closer. Let us never forget that we are, in truth, one people, united by our common light against the darkness," Cobalt said as he cut the ribbon laying across the empty entrance of the arch.

"Now, for the moment of Truth," he added, quieter, before walking to the side, and producing a six-foot lever that he inserted into a socket in full view of everyone.

Cobalt began to pull on the lever, but seemed to struggle. "Ghira, if you could lend a hand… I seem to have forgotten something important."

"What would that be?"

"That this is a team effort… and I made this lever so that you need two people to pull it," Cobalt admitted.

Ghira just sighed and shook his head, before positioning himself to help Cobalt.

Together, the two managed to shift the lever into the 'on' position, before Cobalt placed a foot on the lever and bent and twisted it until it broke, removing all but what remained in the socket, saying "Let no man, woman or child ever end this co-operation."

There was the sound of charging, before a great sheet of coruscatign energy shot from the major part of the arch, being 'caught' by the smaller part.

People didn't seem to trust it, until Argent, riding Uruloki emerged from the other side. As the portal was ~60% translucent, and a giant golden dragon was somewhat hard to miss, it was clear they hadn't simply walked through it… which meant that the portal actually went somewhere.

"As a part of this, I would like to extend an official promise of support… not that we wouldn't have anyway, but should Menagerie ever cry out for assistance in a time of need, Outer Heaven will happily answer the call," Cobalt added.

"How… generous."

Cobalt shrugged.

"I still don't like you." Ghira added

"You don't have to… there are some days where I don't like me. All I ask is that you keep in mind I'm more than happy to lend a hand with almost anything," I said. "This portal is meant to be a symbol of the co-operation between kingdoms."

Ghira grunted in acknowledgement.

* * *

I emerged from the portal riding Uruloki in front of Argent and with a number of cars and pedestrians in tow.

"We're here!" I shouted cheerfully and directed Uruloki to stand to the side.

I saw several people gaze in wonder around themselves, especially as this gate was situated inside a chamber that had a transparisteel roof (self polarising, in case the sun ever wandered into view) that let people see the cosmos above them… though the magnetic fields that kept these kinds of large-sized windows safe created a beautiful aurora.

Looking towards a more 'terrestrial' vale would show several of the great towers I'd constructed, as the portal was situated just outside the heart of the city.

"People, I give you, Outer Heaven, collectively the greatest achievement of mankind on or off Remnant," I said. "Enjoy yourselves, and don't forget to collect a token on your way into the city proper: it can be exchanged for any one item as a gift from me to you… I would recommend an omnitool, personally. They're neat little things."

There was some excitement after I mentioned that, murmurs and the like.

* * *

"She's waking up, get back people," I said. "She's going to be real grumpy, especially at me."

The Lagiacrus stirred, before at last waking up.

" _Good morning, how was your nap?_ " I asked.

The Lagiacrus looked beyond confused.

" _I used my magic to teach you the language of the land of the rising sun whilst you slept,_ " I said. " _I have been tending the wounds you sustained in our fight during that time as well._ "

The Lagiacrus bristled with barely held rage.

" _I wouldn't do that. You remember how last time went? I will not hold back this time. Instead I would listen to what the strange man who does impossible things has to say,_ " I told her.

The Lagiacrus toned down from bristling to seething.

" _Welcome to a whole new world. We call this place_ Remnant _. Your old world and territories are currently unreachable… and this world does not possess any source of food that would prove adequate for one of your mighty stature, O noble one. Such is your beauty and grace and might, that I felt it inappropriate to slay you once I had defeated you… thus here I am, tending the injuries I have caused, in the hopes you would listen to an agreement I have for you."_

The Lagiacrus appeared cautious now, curious… but still very angry.

" _I would like to put our past issues aside for now, I was protecting my territory, just as you would yours. I have constructed this place that floats in the middle of the sea, and would offer it to you as a place to rest and a place to stay in rough tides and in sickness, I would offer you as much food as you can eat as well, as, to the best of my knowledge, no adequate source of food exists on_ Remnant _that would feed you, the_ Epioth _you are used to do not exist here… however, I should inform you that soulless monsters made of darkness inhabit_ Remnant _, and they fill the sea, the sky and the land with their foulness. We call them the creatures of_ Grimm _, and they seek to destroy all that lives and breathes and bears a soul, like you or I do._ "

The Lagiacrus still looked pissed, but huffed, and made to slide into the water once more.

" _Wait!_ "

The Lagiacrus snapped her head around and glared at me.

" _At least allow me to finish tending your wounds before you leave. You're still in rough shape… as a healer I cannot in good conscience just let you leave with such terrible wounds, and as a man of conscience, I cannot do the same knowing I inflicted them upon you, Though I will not force you to stay if you insist…_ _I would do this for you for no cost bar your time._ "

The Lagiacrus brought her head low and growled. With her neck coiled as it was, she could snap me up in a second, and she growled at me.

" _Just keep still, this'll take a minute and it will feel strange._ "

I took a deep breath and reached out before she could bite, feeling the radiant energy welling up from within as my hands began to glow.

Then I touched my palms to her snout, and felt myself drain as I flooded her with the radiance, sealing cracks, mending injuries, rejuvenating the body, dulling the pain and inducing a sense of extreme calm and wellbeing.

" _Your horn will need to grow back, as will your tail, but the broken ribs, the skull fracture, the rents and tears in your hide have all but disappeared…_ " I said once it was done, panting from the effort and the energy expended. " _If you should become injured once more, I shall not hesitate to administer another dose. Merely come to this place and wait, and do not attack anyone who may be on these docks… I shall come, bearing my magic or bearing arms of war, as the situation requires… if you should ask, we shall provide a meal and a safe haven to rest… and such will be provided if you should help a boat arrive without attacking it as well. Fare thee well on your journeys._ "

The Lagiacrus roared at me before turning around, slapping me with her tail, which sent me across the docks, before she slipped into the water.

"Touchy," I said.

* * *

I glanced at the lab results.

Then I read them in detail.

Then I cross referenced, Argus going through hundreds of years of history in a few seconds in all four kingdoms, looking for a specific event.

I got results, a handful every generation, yes, but solid evidence all the same. The implications ran wild.

I had to tell someone.

"Come again?" Blake said.

"Okay, so, we all know that Humans and Faunus are completely compatible, biologically… that is, they can have kids together… just, as a biologist, it excites me to learn that half-faunus kids have reproduced, and their kids and their kids and so on and so forth… though, it seems the faunus genetics seem to be dominant, for some reason."

"Why's that got you excited?" Yang asked.

"Because you can't mate together a horse and a donkey and get offspring that can then have kids again, same thing for tigers and lions, goats and sheep, cows and buffalo or yaks. The offspring of these similar-but-distinct species is completely infertile, because the chromosome count is fucked up, and if they _were_ purebreed, they'd have down syndrome," I said. "But humans and faunus can… that only happens elsewhere in nature with two breeds of the same species, like huskies and alsatians, or maus with tabbies… so faunus are… well, 100% human, just a different type of human, one with racial bonuses, like night vision… which lends credence to my insistence on calling them abhumans instead. Faunus makes it sound like something else."

"Why's that so important?"

"Because it means you should have had full inalienable human rights from the start! You are human. There is no biological difference… I've looked, you appear to be coding on what's noncoding DNA in humans... I could grab a baseline human, some kind of faunophile of some description no doubt, shoot him up with tailored mutagens that would switch these nucleotides on and force a 'second puberty', and voila, new faunus… and I know how to do every last bit of that," I said, trailing off at the end.

"Where'd you learn that?"

"From the, uh... masters themselves…" I said with a shudder, producing a book. "After I read their diary."

The book in question was bound in human leather that had been taken from someone's face… evidenced by the eye and mouth holes in the cover… the permanent scream frozen on its cover caused an immediate knee-jerk revulsion

"Dark eldar haemonculi are masters of two things: inflicting the absolute maximum of suffering possible on their victims, and biological manipulation to do that… I heard of one who had a guy suspended around his laboratory as little more than large bits of meat on big hooks… he was still alive… I had hoped to learn how he kept him alive to force already low mortality rates in our hospitals even lower. That is not a mistake I will ever make again. If it's bound in human leather, it's generally bad juju and you should never actually read it, let alone permanently brand the knowledge into your brain."

I got up, made my way to the cabinet and grabbed the Fenrisian Ale.

"So, all in favour of helping me suppress the foreign memory of cutting a woman open without anaesthesia and eating her unborn child in front of her, say aye," I said.

"Wait- what?"

I threw back the bottle and drank like my life depended on it.

When I surfaced for air (a full half the bottle later) I shook my head at how strong the ale was.

"Horrible, horrible things happened in that book, and I'm going to do my utmost to forget that I ever remembered them," I said. "And since amnesics don't work on me, I can't apply the usual selections of brain bleach, so I'm going to apply the age-old cure and drink until everything blurs into unconsciousness."

"Should you be drinking that much?"

"Let me put it this way," I said, indicating the half-full bottle. "Drinking _that_ much is enough to kill two of you dead… and I'm only shtar- starting. Cheers."

And with that, I knocked back several more long draughts of Ale.


	77. Operation: Endgame

**Hello All. Yoshtar here. Sorry for not posting in the** _ **longest**_ **time… Mistakes were made.**

 **I've been having a long chat with a few different people, and you've helped me identify a bunch of flaws and critical design errors. Point is, I was half-assing GfG in favour of trying to get awesome and/or funny moments in, and Cobalt suffered for that… and realising that curbed, if not outright killed my enthusiasm for writing GfG, after i was aware of the cesspool of half-formed ideas it was becoming.**

 **So, here's as best a conclusion as I can create for now. Give you lot some closure at least.**

 **Among the various other nails in GfG's coffin came from my editor-in-chief, eoad2000. As we wrote, his private life became hectic and he was forced to quit fanfiction for the foreseeable future.**

 **Mercifully, he was able to direct me to a replacement before he left, and his friend, the lovely Saraphima, has deigned to help me out closing this project and with future projects.**

 _Hello everyone! Saraphima here. I'm looking forward to being able to work on this series with Yoshtar. Some of the bonus stuff for the next story was especially fun to help write._

 **Indeed. Sara's taking a much more active role in a lot of the future stories, and she is currently a Co-Author rather than just editing, adding to and helping to filter the stream of ideas that gets hammered into one of these stories.**

 _I hope you all like what we've cooked up. I know Yoshtar did._

 **Down, girl. Anyway, I hope you enjoy Operation Endgame.**

* * *

 _Hello… well, it takes a lot to admit this to you folk, but… I fucked up. Bad._

 _You all know this. You know what I've done and how I've done it, and I'm willing to bet everything that not a single one of you approves._

 _So, since I've tried to sort things out, or possibly paint myself in a good light, and failed- repeatedly- I'm going to go for broke._

 _Since I've lost sight of who and what I was, and my creations reflect that, I'm- well, I'm destroying anything that can be used to mass-produce weapons of war, making every AI I've ever produced its own free agent and putting Outer Heaven's power farm under permanent lockdown… I'm pulling the plug. No more attempted utopia. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. No one person can handle the level of responsibility and sheer power I held, try as I may… no good intention survives government either, and I would not trust my creation to a senate. The amount of ruin they could sow worldwide, especially once they are possessed of some kind of agenda, is immeasurable… there are too many 'isms', and they are too compelling to resist. Anything that made Outer Heaven special, beyond being in space will shut down and/or destroy itself… that mostly just means the nanofabricators._

 _Enclosed is a series of dossiers containing every operation past, present and future for those so-inclined to modify or scrap as they see fit._

 _I'm making a one-way trip. I'm taking the Bahamut and I'm going to kill Salem. Plain and simple. No worry, no mess, just defeating one last, great villain and I'll retire, forever, drop off the grid, hell, the face of Remnant. One way or another, this will be the last you ever see of me. This one's always been kind-of a suicide mission anyways._

 _Farewell. I feel honoured to have called you 'friend' for the time I did._

The hologram faded, and the room was silent. Some people stared, others tried to find what to say.

Cobalt was a controversial person at the best of times.

Velvet wondered if she'd somehow prompted this.

* * *

"Cobalt, I want to break up."

"What?" Cobalt asked, looking up from the engine he'd been putting back together.

"You changed. You're… you're not the man I fell in love with" Velvet explained

Cobalt sat there for a while, dumbstruck. Velvet braced herself for whatever came next.

"Okay."

"It's- what?"

"You wanna leave, go. I promised myself a long time ago I wasn't going to stand in the way of anyone I cared about." Cobalt said

"You-"

"Go!"

* * *

Velvet's request had shocked him.

Not the same person? Had this been a recent thing, or…

Cobalt hadn't been able to focus after Velvet had dumped him. He'd eventually gone to the database and brought up as much old footage as he could.

A lot of it had been pirated from Ozpin's own records. The man had been diligent in recording everything that happened in his school.

Watching the old scenes brought back the memories. His first hunt, days and days of studying, the dates he'd gone on with Velvet.

He'd been a different man, then. More pure and innocent. He thought back, tried to pinpoint when it had happened, trying to see if there was a turning point at all, and what careful nudges had sent him here, spiralling out of control.

Seeing Pyrrha murdered like that hadn't helped… in the end, though, the day he'd decided to create the Templar and deploy them from the then-unnamed Outer Heaven had marked the start of this downward spiral.

Cobalt felt anger and disgust welling up within him with each happy memory, both directed at himself, and what he'd become. He'd gone full-retard. He was better than this.

The more he dwelled on everything, the less he wanted to take a slow burn approach.

Eventually, he decided to take action and change fate once more.

* * *

"Once more unto the breach." Cobalt said. Though there had once been a throne for a captain in the bridge, Cobalt had torn it out in disgust. It now sat as monatomic dust against the far wall.

He had fallen into the trappings of dictatorship. He would not rule any longer. The templar aboard were free beings. Argent was the actual leader, if anyone. He no longer held the authority to command anyone.

"...One final penance…"

The entire ship hummed with the energies being collected from the miniature star serving as its power source.

"...and then silence."

The Bahamut's dragon-shaped figurehead opened its mouth, and from it a beam of light and plasma shot across the landscape.

The small manor that was its target stood little chance.

An act of god. Divine retribution, he'd called it. His final order was to be its first, and hopefully only, use.

Cobalt left as the beam wound down, and began the march to Salem's house, taking a landing ship to the ground.

The Bahamut flew overhead as he landed on the edge of the crater the TerraFlare canon had left.

Salem had survived. Of course she had. Watts and Hazel hadn't, just here one second, and completely gone the next, no more bad guys.

No words were exchanged as Templar began deploying around the crater and forming up to ensure no Grimm came to reinforce their mistress.

"I had a speech ready."

Salem looked at Cobalt expectantly.

"I'm not gonna use it. I'm just gonna let you know that whatever happens here, I win, you lose."

And with that they began, Cobalt's halberd versus Salem's claws. No 'flashy moves'- as far as someone schooled in anime-style martial arts can manage- or spells here, just impossibly fast combat.

Salem was what could be expected of a final boss, summoning grimm by the bucketload, and a supremely skilled combatant herself. She was trying to destroy Cobalt so she could escape and rebuild.

Cobalt wanted Salem to hurt him, to whittle him down. He was trying to bring this 'game' to a draw. This was suicide by Grimm, and he took every opportunity to trade damage in the hopes of a double-kill, taking clearly trapped openings and more.

Salem didn't take long to disarm Cobalt, bending his halberd in half and discarding the pile of useless metal. Turning around and expecting a disarmed opponent, she was instead forced to duck out the way of a sword

"What?"

"What kind of fucking scrub doesn't have a backup?" Cobalt demanded

Salem grit her teeth and removed Cobalt's sword. The blade didn't break, but it did bend.

Cobalt replaced it with a pair of sharpened entrenching shovels, using them like a pair of axes.

Salem had a harder time dodging around these ones, and had to resort to overwhelming Cobalt with Grimm.

"Die!"

"That's the plan!" Cobalt said

Salem nearly stopped "what?"

Cobalt capitalised on her hesitation, his rifle barely missing by millimetres as she dodged out the way.

"You know me. Your pet assassin came for me." Cobalt told her "you know who I am and what I do. I'm looking to drag you with me as you send me to the void."

Cobalt broke free of the pack swinging.

"Suicide by Grimm. One way or another, neither of us are leaving this crater."

Now unarmed, Salem had to dodge around propelled strikes, blasts of magic and Cobalt's determination to seek his death. Her claws came up repeatedly, Cobalt's recklessness working against him and costing him aura.

And then their duel was interrupted by the lines breaking. Fearless Templar falling as their warframes were rendered inoperable or useless- creatures that few hunters had ever seen, let alone fought- many of which were un-named barring a number designation.

Cobalt instead re-intensified his efforts, surging forward and punching Salem towards an empty space to give himself some room.

Cobalt stopped and focused as Salem tried to regain the air in her lungs, coughing and wheezing as she did so.

When Salem stood back up, she saw Cobalt had charged up some sort of special attack. His fist was surrounded by swirling colours and motes of light. As She watched, Cobalt's clothes and even his eye seemed to get sucked into the attack as it reached full charge, leaving just a normal, baseline human wearing worn-out street clothes.

Salem charged and smiled with glee as she felt no resistance stop her. Her hand plunged through Cobalt's midsection and out the other.

Cobalt's hand struck out and plunged into Salem's gut before he reached upwards, for her equally-squishy-but-infinitely-more-vital organs. Once he had a hold of Salem's heart, he released the energy.

As Salem's head landed with a wet 'splat' and rolled elsewhere before dissipating, Cobalt collapsed. Gamer tried to return to him- it was locked to his soul after all, no matter how much Metasoft might regret that- but it kept coming up with a fatal error and crashing before rebooting and trying again.

Fatal was right. He'd been skewered. He felt cold already.

He finally stopped blocking Lisica out and she was by his side in an instant.

"No- no. Don't bother. My conscience is gonna be tortured by this no matter what I do. This is for the best."

Lisica tried anyways. I just did my best to not sigh and gave her my last words.

"Just promise, whatever happens, spend the rest of your 1000 years. Do good for the world, heal the sick, tend to the poor and needy, bring fortune to the unfortunate. Know my path and never walk down it. Be everything I wanted us to be… Argent, you're in charge now. Let no one dictate your path or course for you. I made you to be a protector of man, and to prove that I could, and I tried to do right by you. Now, I want you to walk your own path, and prove it to everyone the benefits of being nice and treating an organic AI right. To everyone else, I'm sorry… and I hope I never come back."

It was getting hard to breathe now and the dark was starting to creep in around my vision. It hurt like hell, and I was clinging onto life by pure instinct alone…

It sucked, it hurt like hell, but as consciousness faded out, I felt at peace…

 **The End.**

* * *

 **Well, that's the end of GfG. Cobalt's dead now. It was how it was going to end from the start especially once we saw Salem, but I'd always imagined it being more heroic, like a noble sacrifice… things got darker, and this is what we're left with.**

 _Well, at least it's over and done with now._

 **True, true.**

 _But wait, you're asking. What about the sequels!_

 **Those'll take a while whilst we go over the rough drafts and shore them up again. Sorry!**

 _Until then, we've cooked up a little stinger for you all. Enjoy!_

* * *

" _Do you realise what you're saying?"_

"If I didn't, I wouldn't have spoken." Alex replied

" _Unacceptable"_

"Look, B-7291 isn't too far gone to be saved yet. We know he at least has the capacity to overcome his problems." Alex defended

" _How can you be sure? How can you be sure he won't go mad and destroy all of our work?"_

"He was able to recognize that he had changed for the worst. That's a start, and I believe I can help. You just need to put me in The Game."

" _You do realize what you are asking? We cannot allow you to retain the majority of your memories within the system."_

"I am aware of that, yes. I designed most of it myself after all. All I'm asking is that I be given the full version of The Gamer and that I be placed alongside Subject B-7291," Alex replied.

" _Very well. You will walk alongside him. Show us you can rehabilitate him, and both you and he will go free."_

"That is all I ask for, Council."


End file.
